Israel’s deputy foreign minister said Syria’s new leaders are “wolves in clothes of sheep,” who are trying to persuade the world they are not radical Islamists — but her government isn’t convinced “We’re not fooled by many of the conversations and interviews of those rebel groups who are, in fact, terrorist groups,” Sharren Haskel said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Wednesday. She was responding to a question about Syria’s de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who said Israel’s military should reverse its recent advance into the buffer zone with Syria because his forces pose no threat to the country. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the former al-Qaeda affiliate headed by Al-Sharaa, is designated a terrorist organization by the US and other countries, though Washington has held direct talks with the group since it toppled President Bashar al-Assad earlier this month. Haskel, 40, said Israel won’t make the same mistake it made with Hamas, the Palestinian group that indicated support for coexistence before launching the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that triggered the war in Gaza.
US lifts bounty on new Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa
The United States lifted the reward for the capture of the leader of the armed group Ahmed al-Sharaa, after he pledged not to allow terrorist factions that pose threats to the US and its neighboring countries to operate within Syria, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf told reporters on Friday.”Based on our discussion, I told him we would not be pursuing the Rewards for Justice reward offer,” she says. “We discussed the critical need to ensure that terrorist groups cannot pose a threat inside of Syria or externally, including to the US and our partners in the region. Ahmad al-Sharaa committed to this.” Previously, the FBI had announced a reward of up to $10 million for any information that could lead to al-Sharaa’s capture, known by his alias Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, pointing to his swearing of allegiance to Al-Qaeda..