From the FT:
“Jolani capitalised on the recent outreach he’d conducted with tribes, former opponents and minority groups, brokering surrenders and ordering the protection of minorities. He even directed a statement to Russia…suggesting HTS and Moscow could find common ground” END

Other interesting points from the CNN interview:
- ⁠The Assad regime was “rotten from within”. Iran and Russia only bought it time
- ⁠The regime couldnt disengage itself from Iran
- ⁠says HTS may disband. Only existed to remove the regime 7/X

Syria’s rebels were notoriously fractious. Considering how often Jolani mentioned “institutionalisation” and the example he offers about joint training makes it sound to me this was a core issue HTS has been working to address these past few years 6/x

That episode was for me emblematic of how ineffective, pointless and wasteful (in resources and lives) western interventions in the Middle East had been. The US thought it could force Syrians to put aside their concerns and care about Washington’s concerns 5/X

For eg in 2015 ran a $500m programme to train and equip 5,000 rebels to fight ISIS. The project was a spectacular failure with only about 5 operational graduates of the programme. Jolani was head of the AQ affiliate that ambushed a bunch of them. 4/X

www.cbsnews.com/news/us-prog...

The first points he makes are the most interesting to me;
- HTS undertook political engagement to encourage institutionalisation amongst the opposition
- ⁠the military units were unified via joint training. This also improved battlefield discipline
3/X

The most useful thing to read/watch right now are interviews with Jolani. I suggest two. CNN’s sit down linked here and the FT’s write up over the weekend (not a direct interview but useful) 2/X youtu.be/1tLBPbEXScA?...