Tahrir al-Sham Denounces De-Escalation Zones as Treachery

Their ‘fatwa’ aims to warn ‘moderate’ rebel groups against abiding by the Russian, Iranian and Turkish-sponsored ceasefire agreement.

HTS threatened to wage war on other Syrian rebel groups such as the so-called Free Syrian Army, if they follow the terms of the agreements that calls for dividing Syria into "de-escalation zones" where fighting and bombing would be prohibited. 

They dismissed the deal, calling it a conspiracy against the Syrian revolution and promised that it would be launching attacks against any and all Syrian rebel groups that support it.

"Accepting the Astana agreement is a betrayal of god, his messenger and the believers, as it is the betrayal of the blood spilt in efforts attempting to liberate al-Sham [Syria] from the hands of the disbelievers. For this reason, abolishing groups that are attempting to thwart our Jihad is Jihad in itself. It is a duty upon every Muslim. This ruling includes those groups as well as their collaborators or those who allow them to work under their banner. All of these are bad and should be killed," the group added.

HTS was founded in February 2017 from al-Qaeda's former affiliate in Syria, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (al-Nusra rebranded) as well as other groups such as Ahrar al-sham. It is concentrated in the city of Idlib in northwestern Syria and was formed to unite (without Daesh) to dominate swathes of western Syria.

It emerged as the second strongest group in Syria after Daesh and both originated out of al-Qaeda, seeking to topple the Assad government and impose an ultra-puritanical Islamic state.

Both adhere to a Salafist-jihadist ideology which has the aim of establishing a Caliphate — or Islamic state — in areas under its sway.

Regional states, especially Turkey, have been desperately trying to establish a new umbrella group of moderate Syrian rebels to repel the HTS coalition but its efforts are making slow progress and had not garnered support for the US ever since Turkey condemned the new US administration's decision to continue arming the Kurdish YPG in Syria.

The Turkish President said that any US failure to take into account Turkey's concerns over Kurdish groups in Syria will, "surely have consequences and will yield a negative result for the US as well." He also said that "we want to believe that our allies will prefer to side with us, not with a terrorist organization."