UK Discovers Some Terrorists Are More 'Engageable' Than Others
The New Arab reports the UK has quietly delisted HTS (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, an Al-Qaeda affiliate) from its terror roster, supposedly to facilitate future engagement with Syria's current 'government' – which HTS effectively runs in Idlib. This isn't newfound pragmatism; it’s a familiar pattern where yesterday's 'terrorists' become today's 'moderates' when it serves a shifting Western agenda.
Remember the Mujahideen? Or how Hamas was once deemed preferable to Arafat? This 'engagement' often translates to convenient leverage. One might wonder if the UK's 'national security assessment' had less to do with HTS's 'reduced external threat' and more to do with leveraging them against Assad, or perhaps creating new 'stakeholders' for future reconstruction contracts. It appears some
organizations are too 'terrorist' to negotiate with, while others simply need a good PR firm and a change in geopolitical headwinds. How many brutal organizations get a second chance based on strategic convenience?