By
Under Syria’s former President Bashar al-Assad, Syria was suspended from the Arab League in 2011, but now that the al-Qaeda linked jihadist Abu Mohammad al-Julani (aka Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa) is president, Syria is now in good graces with the Arab League. Al-Sharaa was put there by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) notes:
Since 2017, Turkey has armed and supported these groups, facilitated the movement of jihadist fighters into Syria, and worked to transition al-Jolani’s group from a jihadist organization to a political entity aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood.
In this latest development, in which the president of the “Arab Republic of Egypt” has issued a formal invitation to al-Sharaa — “the president of the Syrian Arab Republic” — the new Syrian leader is fully legitimized and the Arab League has embraced him. The Arab League dismisses the view of any Western nation regarding al-Sharaa.
On Gaza, “al-Sharaa has called Trump’s plan ‘a very huge crime that cannot happen,’” while Erdogan has declared:
No one has the power to remove the people of Gaza from their eternal homeland that has been around for thousands of years…Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem belong to the Palestinians….The proposals on Gaza put forward by the new US administration under pressure from the Zionist leadership have nothing worth discussing from our point of view.
According to the JCPA, “Turkish opposition sources suggest Erdogan’s policies aim to revive the Ottoman Caliphate through strategic control over Syria.” His immediate task is to position “jihadist Islam as a vehicle for political Islam, aiming to establish influence over Syria.”
What this means for Israel is an increasing and overt display of hostility, backed by the Arab League.
The JCPA also warns about reports in the Turkish press which “indicate plans to establish military bases in Syria equipped with air defense systems, ostensibly to protect against Israeli airstrikes.”
In the meantime, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has demanded the complete demilitarisation of much of southern Syria.” Netanyahu said that Israel will not allow Syrian forces led by al-Sharaa to “enter the area south of Damascus,” and that the IDF intends to stay indefinitely in parts of southern Syria.
Turkey should have been thrown out of NATO long ago. Instead, in recent bad news, EU leaders have started “lifting their opposition to key military hardware sales, to the alarm of Turkey’s rival Greece. The move comes as Turkey, Nato’s second-largest army, is viewed as potentially playing a key role in Europe’s security goals” involving Ukraine.
The EU’s move to help arm Turkey is akin to the billions of dollars that poured into Iran’s coffers under the Biden administration.
Turkey’s backing of Syria is worrying, given its hostility to Israel. A Jerusalem Post analysis stated that “Turkey may feel that it has a new opportunity to exploit the situation in the region. If this puts Turkey on Israel’s northern Golan border, even in terms of air defenses and air bases that have more of a role there, it could pose a challenge for Israel.”
“Syria’s leader invited to Arab League meeting on Gaza,” AFP, February 24, 2025:
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa received an invitation on Sunday to attend an Egyptian-hosted Arab League meeting on Gaza, the Syrian presidency said.
“The president of the Syrian Arab Republic, Mr Ahmed al-Sharaa, received an official invitation from the president of the Arab Republic of Egypt… to participate in the extraordinary Arab League summit” on March 4 in Cairo, the presidency statement said.
For the latest updates on the Israel-Palestine conflict, visit our dedicated page.
The meeting was called in response to a widely criticised plan by US President Donald Trump, who has said his government should take over the war-battered Gaza Strip and redevelop it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Its Palestinian inhabitants, according to Trump’s plan, would move elsewhere, including to Egypt and Jordan.
Trump’s plan sparked an outcry from Arab governments as well as other world leaders, and the United Nations warned against “ethnic cleansing” in the Palestinian territory.
Al-Sharaa has called Trump’s plan “a very huge crime that cannot happen.”
Syria under former president Bashar al-Assad was suspended from the Arab League in 2011 over his brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests which spiraled into a devastating war.
Damascus was allowed to return to the regional bloc in 2023…..
It’s interesting that these countries don’t want to take in any Palestinians, but they are all opposed to the idea of the Palestinians going anywhere else.
The Palestinians have no legal claim to the land they are on. But none of this apparently matters to people who believe they can control the world through force.
I am curious as to what the Crown Prince MBS thinks about Turkey and Egypt’s role in denigrating the Trump plan.
These muslims are total clowns