London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 07, 2025

Trump’s Former Syria Envoy Calls al-Qaeda’s Syrian Offshoot ‘Asset’ to US

Trump’s Former Syria Envoy Calls al-Qaeda’s Syrian Offshoot ‘Asset’ to US

Jim Jeffrey, the former Trump US special representative for Syria and special presidential envoy for the Western coalition against Daesh (ISIS)*, raised eyebrows in November after admitting that he and members of his staff had deliberately obfuscated and covered up the true size of the US military footprint in Syria from the president.

Former Syria envoy Jim Jeffrey has characterized Hayat Tahrir al-Sham,* the al-Qaeda*-linked group formerly known as the al-Nusra Front, as "an asset" to the current US strategy in Syria.

“They are the least bad option of the various options on Idlib, and Idlib is one of the most important places in Syria, which is one of the most important places in the Middle East,” Jeffrey said, speaking to PBS’ Frontline in a recent interview.

Jeffrey, who oversaw the Trump administration’s Syria policy until November 2020, when he retired, made the comments in an upcoming PBS documentary on Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, the former al-Qaeda commander who now is now chief of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

The US formally continues to designate the group as a terrorist organization, with its Canadian, British and Turkish allies doing the same. Jolani has been designated a terrorist by the US since 2013, but told PBS that the designation is “unfair” because his ties to al-Qaeda are a thing of the past. Now, he insists, his battle against the Assad government and against Daesh (ISIS)* makes him an ally to the US and the West in general.

Al-Qaeda is held responsible for the largest terrorist attack on US soil in history, killing nearly 3,000 Americans in attacks in New York, Washington, DC and Pennsylvania on 11 September 2001, with hundreds more dying from cancers and other illnesses associated with exposure to toxic dust at Ground Zero in New York.


Hayat Tahrir al-Sham enjoys control of wide swathes of Idlib, the northwestern Syrian province bordering Turkey which is now the largest territory in western Syria outside Damascus’s control. Syria launched an offensive to liberate Idlib in late 2019, but the offensive was halted in early 2020 after Turkey intervened. A ceasefire facilitated by Russia and Turkey was reached in March 2020, but hundreds of instances of sparodic clashes have been reported in the months since.

Syrian, Iranian and Russian officials and commanders have repeatedly accused the US of using jihadist extremists to try to overthrow the Assad government. In 2012, the Obama administration implemented Operation Timber Sycamore - a classified CIA weapons and training programme which would see the US and its allies ship thousands of tonnes of weapons and billions of dollars to "moderate Syrian rebels" which media investigations later revealed were allied to jihadists, including al-Nusra. The covert operation was closed down by Trump in 2017, but the president's later musings about withdrawing from Syria completely were never realized thanks to the efforts of officials like Jeffrey and various Pentagon staffers.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
×