ISTANBUL (AA) -- Abu Mohammed al-Joulani, the leader of Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria, said in an Al-Jazeera interview Wednesday evening that his group “could cut off the hands and legs of Iran in the region, and if it does not stop, we will take the conflict to its interior.”
He considered “Iran’s plan in the region to be the return of the Persian Empire which the Islamic opening ended,” referring the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century AD.
Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, or “Front of Victory,” is one of the most prominent armed opposition movements in Syria.
In the second part of his interview on the “Without Borders” program on Qatari news channel Al-Jazeera, he said: “Iran is using conversions to Shiism as a tool to expand in the region.
“America is also working to drag Iran into the region to turn it into a killing arena between its countries.”
Joulani described the relationship between the Syrian and Iranian regimes as an “alliance,” as Assad “built his country by himself” and then entered into a relationship with Tehran.
This is in contrast to the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah and its Yemeni counterpart, the Houthis, and others, who are in reality “Iranian creations,” he said.
“Iran is present in Syria through Shia militias and not regime forces,” he said, pointing out that the Iranian regime’s presence in Syria “is at the level of experts.”
The United States “has handed over the region to Iran,” he said, so that “killing between neighboring states” can take place and “from this the states will resort to them (America).”
Joulani played down the likelihood of a “Decisive Storm”-style operation in Syria, saying: “Arab and Gulf rulers defend their thrones and seats of power, the people have no value for them,” accusing regional leaders of also being proxies for the West.
Saudi Arabia formed a coalition of its Arab allies and launched Operation Decisive Storm in Yemen on March 25, 2015, following the overthrow of elected Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi by Houthi forces.
- Arab Spring
Joulani also touched upon the wider Arab Spring revolutions, which he stressed Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahri supports.
Joulani traced the failure of a majority of these revolutions to “the armies in the region, which have had millions of dollars spent on them – not to protect the people but to control them if they revolt.
“Thus, the people have not obtained their freedom except by forming their own armies,” he said. “Peacefulness and protests are languages that these rulers do not understand.”
In this context, the al-Nusra leader criticized what he considered the Muslim Brotherhood’s “deviation” and being “similar” to the West “more than the West asked for.”
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi “is not the one who overthrew Mohamed Morsi, but America,” he said. “Sisi was just a tool.”
Egypt’s first democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi, who hailed from the Muslim Brotherhood, was overthrown in a military coup led by then defense minister Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on July 3, 2013.
Joulani called on the Muslim Brotherhood to “give up on peacefulness and take up arms.”
- Al-Qaeda vs. Daesh
With regards to ties with al-Qaeda, Joulani said: “International classifications are not related to ties (with al-Qaeda) or not, as former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and Hamas and others were not linked with al-Qaeda. Rather, the issue is one of relations with the international system and American hegemony. Everyone who exits this hegemony finds charges leveled against them.”
Jabhat al-Nusra was blacklisted as a terrorist group by the U.S. and the UN in 2012 and 2013 respectively, owing to its ties with al-Qaeda.
He explained that fighters from Daesh “do not abide” by the orders from al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri not to target markets and Shia shrines.
He accused them of “making takfir (apostasy) against all other Muslims and normalizing bloodshed.”
Joulani described Daesh as “Khawarij,” in reference to the extremist 7th century offshoot of Islam, who considered all but themselves to be non-Muslims.
The al-Nusra leader considered Daesh’s self-proclaimed caliphate “void according to the views of Islamic scholars,” stressing that even though Daesh make takfir against al-Nusra, the latter will not do the same to them.
Takfir is the act of one Muslim calling another Muslim an apostate, a charge taken seriously within Islam.
“Daesh fights more ferociously in Iraq than it does in Syria,” Joulani said.
He attributed this to the fact that “most of the Daesh leadership are Iraqis and have a long history of fighting there.”
In contrast, Joulani said that Jabhat al-Nusra “fights and builds at the same time” in Syria, pointing out that they provide all facilities and needs to citizens, from water to electricity to facilitating transactions.
He praised what he considered, “the legendary steadfastness of the Syrian people,” pointing out that Muslims will not secure their power and glory, “except through the route the people of the Levant are following to liberate Damascus.”
Jabhat al-Nusra were not known before protests started in Syria in March 2011, but the group became a prominent fighting force in the battlefield with bombs targeting regime military and security centers in the first months of the protests.
It expanded its influence until it came to control large areas in the north and south of the country
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