Al-Julani, from the Fight against Assad to a Confrontation with Zawahiri
group.
When Daesh(ISIS) conquered
vast swathes of Syria, in April 2013, the leader of Daesh, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
announced the merger of the two organizations, The Islamic State in Iraq and Jabhat
al-Nusra in Syria, into one, under the name of' 'The Islamic State in Iraq and
Syria'. This formation was quick to disintegrate, when al-Julani rejected the
merger, claiming he had not been consulted, and announced, in a recorded
statement broadcast by Aljazeera satellite channel, his allegiance to the
leader of al-Qaeda, Aymen al-Zawahiri, asking al-Zawahiri to act as arbiter
between his organization and the Islamic State in Iraq. Then, al-Zawhiri
rejected the unification of the two groups and asked the Islamic State in Iraq
to carry on with the fight against the United States, leaving the Jihad in
Syria to al-Nusra. The Islamic State refused.
In a surprise move,
al-Julani declared disengagement with al-Qaeda, in July 2016, changing the name
of his organization from 'Jabhat al-Nusra' to 'Jabhat Fateh al-Sham'. Although
al-Zawahiri did not respond to this renunciation of pledge, the disengagement
resulted in dissensions inside 'al-Nusra', as one splinter group refused to
disengage from al-Qaeda, declaring the renunciation of a pledge to al-Zawahiri
a heresy, an act of treason and a recoil. Another splinter group supported the
decision taken by al-Julani, saying that the pledge given by al-Julani to
Zawahiri was a military consent that may be abrogated, because it was an
exceptional cosent and not a pledge to an Imam. By abrogating such a consent,
they said, they were not becoming Khawarij, as they were not revolting against
the authority of a Caliph. The fact that a more advisable act of prudence
emerged, made it possible to abrogate the pledge.
Al-Zawihiri breaks his
silence
Conflict escalated between
the two splinter groups, between the pro-Qaeda group rejecting the renunciation
of the pledge and the al-Julani group, represented in Jabhat Fateh al-Sham,
especially after the arrest, in November 2017, of some of the leaders of the
pro-Qaeda group by the Jabhat. Among those arrested were Eyad al-Tousi, aka
Abu-Jleibeeb the Jordanian, and Sami al-Aridi, aka Abu Mahoud al-Shami, as both
men refused the disengagement with al-Qaeda and incited dissension within the
ranks of the new Front, set up by Jabhat al-Nusra.
In view of the
escalating frictions between the two groups, al-Zawahiri broke his silence by
getting As-Sahab (the cloud), which is the production house of al-Qaeda, on
November 29, 2017, to disseminate a statement titled 'Let us fight them like a
compact structure'. In that statement he accused al-Julani of having
renunciated a pledge asserting that he had never agreed to relieve 'Jabhat
al-Nusra' of their pledge, as this was a commitment that they had to abide by,
and that it was haram (a sinful act) to renege on it.
On the other side, the
official in charge of religious affairs in Hayat Tahrir al-Sham said, in a protracted
statement on Telegram channels : 'Al-Qaeda has never been given a pledge. This
was an agreement between our two organizations to work together in Syria'. He
went on to accuse on of the leaders of al-Qaeda, named Atwan, of
misrepresenting the disengagement to al-Zawhiri, because of disinformation
given to him by the splinter group rejecting the disengagement.
The misunderstanding
between Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and al-Qaeda came to an end through the good
offices of a group of leading Jihadis who set up two committees for
reconciliation, the first committee was called 'Reconciliation is Good', and
among its members were Abu Qotada the Palestinian, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, Abu
Abdullah al-Hashimi, Abu Hothayfa al-Sudani and others.
As this committee
could not get the job done, because Hayat Tahrir al-Sham had its reservations
on some of its members, a new committee was set up, with the name 'The
Disingagement Committee,
And
hold fast, all of you together'. The membership of this committee included,
among others, Aba Abdel Karim, chairman, Aba Malik al-Shami, member, Sheikh Aba
Qatada al-Albani, member and Sheikh Mokhtar al-Turki, member. In spite of the
success of this committee in setting free those militants of al-Qaeda arrested
by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, it did not manage to reach a reconciliation among all
al-Qaeda affiliates and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
Among the reasons why
al-Julani took a decision to detach himself from al-Qaeda and work in Syria as
a separate entity are: the fact that a link to al-Qaeda made it look
suspicious, and led to its name being blacklisted, as a terrorist organization,
by the Global Coalition Against Terrorism, and its locations being bombarded,
more than once. Another reason was that the Front wanted to project itself as a
moderate political faction, so that it may be able to get funded by supporters
of the non-Jihadist opposition movements. Tha last of the reasons for this was
that al-Julani aspired for leadership and wanted to dominate the Jihadist scene
in Syria, so that he might be in a position to amass the spoils of the
victories achieved by the Front in Northern Syria, and claim those victories
for himself and for his new organization.
