Moscow charged yesterday that Jonathan Powell, a former aide to Tony Blair described by TASS as a representative of MI6, suggested that the leader of the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, should build close cooperation with the West. “The British side suggested that the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham group (the current “brand name” of Jabhat al Nusra, an al-Qaeda offshoot) should announce plans to abandon subversive activities against Western countries and build close cooperation with them,” an unnamed diplomatic source said. “Mohammad al-Jolani received recommendations to give an interview to an American reporter in order to create a positive image for the alliance that he heads and rehabilitate it in the future. There are plans to engage some of the U.K.’s allies, primarily the U.S., in efforts aimed at rebranding the al-Nusra group,” the source added.
According to this source, Western intelligence agencies are seeking to directly establish contact with international terrorist groups active in Syria. The meeting between Powell and al-Jolani took place in the Idlib de-escalation zone near the Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing on the Syrian-Turkish border, the source said, without apparently indicating the date of the meeting. According to him, the meeting was focused on the possibility of removing Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham from the list of terrorist organizations. In addition, an agreement was reached on maintaining a permanent communication link with international terrorists designated as such by the United Nations Security Council.
