US shared intelligence with new Syria government to counter Daesh, officials reveal
The United States has been sharing confidential intelligence with Syria’s new authorities, in an apparent effort to counter the common threats posed by the terror group #Daesh despite Washington’s reluctance to recognise the new leadership in Damascus.
According to the Washington Post, which cited multiple current and former US officials familiar with the communications, American intelligence officials initiated contact with representatives from the group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – which forms the core of the new Syrian leadership – and held direct encounters in both Syria and an unnamed third country.
Those exchanges reportedly began two weeks after the former rebel group and its new Syrian interim government came to power on 8 December, following the collapse of the late Assad regime.
The sharing of intelligence, according to the unnamed officials, was the countering of potential threats posed by Daesh, with one prominent case being the new Syrian security forces’ foiling of a planned attack on the popular Shia shrine and pilgrimage site of Sayyida Zainab on the outskirts of Damascus.
US intelligence agencies were reportedly responsible for that attack being averted on 11 January, as they sent warnings to Syrian authorities based on intelligence they had intercepted and gathered.
According to one former US official, the sharing of that intelligence was “the right, prudent and appropriate thing to do, given that there was credible, specific information, and coupled with our efforts to cultivate a relationship with these guys”.
That official also dismissed the scepticism and claims by some – particularly those who were in favour of the deposed Assad regime – that the former rebels and new Syrian authorities are aligned with the US and Western governments and their espionage services, despite Washington’s continued reluctance to recognise the interim government and its ongoing designation of HTS as a terrorist organisation.
The official highlighted the US government’s ‘duty to warn’ policy, which requires American intelligence agencies to alert both US and foreign targets of potential terror attacks to any plots against them, even if they are adversaries.. The intelligence sharing was also apparently carried out for the purpose of specifically countering the resurgence of Daesh – something both the US and HTS are against .
“We share intelligence with the Russians. We share intelligence with the Iranians when we have particular threats and, in some cases, a duty to warn”, said the former official. “So it was an outgrowth of the effort to develop and cultivate a relationship with HTS, but it wasn’t extraordinary in that sense. Even when our interests aren’t perfectly aligned, we have a responsibility, in some cases, to share intelligence.”
Source » middleeastmonitor.com
