TerrorismAssad bolsters al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria with secret oil deals, prisoner release: Western intelligence

Published 21 January 2014

Western intelligence agencies say that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in a complex double game, has provided funds to and cooperated with al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist organizations in Syria even as these organizations fight the Syrian military. The regime has two goals in pursuing this policy. The first is to persuade the West that the uprising is inspired and led by Islamist militants, including al-Qaeda and its affiliates, in order to weaken, and even stop, Western support for the rebels. The second is to allow the jihadists to gain the upper hand in the internal fighting among rebel groups. The regime believes that if the rebellion is seen to be led by Islamist fundamentalists rather than secular and moderate Syrians, more non-Alawite Syrians would side with the regime against the rebels, even if grudgingly.

Western intelligence agencies say that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in a complex double game, has provided funds to and cooperated with al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist organizations in Syria even as these organizations fight the Syrian military. Syrian rebels and defectors from both the regime and the militant organizations have corroborated the information offered by Western intelligence agencies.

The Telegraph reports that Jabhat al-Nusra and the more extreme Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS), the two al-al-Qaeda-affiliated organizations, have both been helped in financing their arms purchases and operations by selling oil and gas from wells in areas under their control to and through the Assad regime.

Rebels and defectors reported that the regime, in an effort to weaken moderate rebel forces, has systematically released Islamist prisoners from Sednaya prison to strengthen jihadist ranks.

Intelligence analysts say the regime has two goals in pursuing this policy. The first goal is to persuade the West that the uprising was inspired and led by Islamist militants, including al-Qaeda and its affiliates, in order to weaken, and even stop, Western support for the rebels.

The second goal is to allow the jihadists to gain the upper hand in the internal fighting among rebel groups. The regime believes that if the rebellion is seen to be led by Islamist fundamentalists rather than secular and moderate Syrians, more non-Alawite Syrians would side with the regime against the rebels, even if grudgingly.

The Telegraph notes that the revelations by Western intelligence sources, who spoke with the paper on condition of anonymity, are in part a public response to demands by Assad that the focus of peace talks, which begin in Switzerland today (Tuesday), be shifted from replacing the Assad regime to cooperating against al-Qaeda in the “war on terrorism.”

“Assad’s vow to strike terrorism with an iron fist is nothing more than bare-faced hypocrisy,” an intelligence source said. “At the same time as peddling a triumphant narrative about the fight against terrorism, his regime has made deals to serve its own interests and ensure its survival.”

Western intelligence services say the regime began collaborating actively with the jihadists again in the spring of 2013, shortly after Jabhat al-Nusra seized control of Syria’s most productive oil fields in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour. The organization began financing its operations in Syria by selling crude oil, with sums raised in the millions of dollars.