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Israel, UAE had secret deal to keep Bashar al Assad in power: Report

Israel and the United Arab Emirate (UAE) had a secret deal to keep Bashar Assad in power, the Middle East Eye reported citing security sources

Saturday December 21, 2024 9:19 PM, ummid.com News Network

[President of UAE Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Bashad al Assad in a file photo]

London: Israel and the United Arab Emirate (UAE) had a secret deal to keep Bashar Assad in power, the Middle East Eye reported citing security sources.

In its exclusive report the London based digital publication said, Israel had planned to divide Syria into three blocks, with Bashar al Assad’s control limited only to capital Damascus.

The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s government on December 08, 2024 thwarted the Israeli plan, the Middle East Eye reported.

“Israel planned to establish military and strategic ties with the Kurds in the northeast and the Druze in the south, leaving Assad in power in Damascus under Emirati funding and control”, David Hearst wrote while reporting for the Middle East Eye.

Removed from the power, Bashar al Assad is in Moscow, Russia along with his family. The latest revelation by the security sources came amid the report that Bashar al Assad, who is a doctor, intends to relocate himself to somewhere in the UAE and establish a hospital.

The UAE and Israel came closer to each other during the first term of U.S. President Elect Donald Trump, and even signed bilateral deal leading to to a full normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 2020.

The Middle East Eye in its report said, the Israel-UAE plan was hinted at in a speech by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar a month ago in which he said Israel needed to reach out to the Kurds and the Druze in Syria and Lebanon, adding that there were “political and security aspects” that needed to be considered.

“We must look at developments in this context and understand that in a region where we will always be a minority we can have natural alliances with other minorities,” Saar said in a direct reference to the Alawites - a minority religious sect in Syria, of which al Assad is part of.

But the plan was overtaken by events when forces loyal to Assad crumbled in Homs and Hama, leaving the road to Damascus open.

Rebels by then had already smashed through frontlines and captured Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, without a fight, transforming the balance of power in the country’s 13-year civil war.

Role of Jordan

In the early hours of Sunday December 08, 2024, Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, the Syrian Prime Minister, appeared on video saying he was willing to hand over power peacefully.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, the HTS leader better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, swiftly replied that he was ready to keep Jalili in power until a transition was organised.

But even as HTS was approaching the capital, the Emirati and Jordanian ambassadors in Syria were making desperate attempts to stop HTS from gaining control of Damascus, security sources revealed, according to Middle East Eye.

Jordan encouraged the Free Syrian Army and allied groups from the south to get to Damascus before HTS, the publication said in the report.

“Before Jolani arrived, the two ambassadors arranged for fighters from the Free Syrian Army to pick the Syrian Prime Minister up from his home and take him to the Four Seasons Hotel where they were to officially hand over the state institutions to the armed groups from the south,” security sources told the Middle East Eye, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Jalali was filmed being escorted to the hotel by soldiers from the Hauran region in southern Syria belonging to the Fifth Corps, a military force made up of former rebels who had previously reconciled with the Syrian government.

“Jalali stalled and phoned Jolani. Jolani told him: ‘Don’t do it’ and Jalali heeded that advice,” a source said.

Why Israel bombed Syria

When Israel realised it could not thwart HTS’s takeover of the country it began destroying Syria’s military assets, including sinking its fleet in Latakia and occupying territory including Mount Hermon, Syria's highest mountain near the border with Lebanon and the occupied Golan Heights, the Middle East Eye said.

“These weapons were safe under Assad. That is how much Israel was invested in keeping him in control. But they became unsafe in the hands of the rebels,” a source said.

Officials in both Jordan and the UAE expressed alarm at the HTS takeover, and the prospects of an Islamist-led government in Syria, even if, as has been promised by Sharaa, all factions and religions are represented, the Middle East Eye reported.

Since the eruption of the Arab Spring revolutions in 2011, the Emiratis have been at the forefront of anti-democratic counter-revolutionary efforts in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen.

Jordan has over one million Syrian refugees and shares a long desert border with Syria which is straddled by tribes who live on both sides of the frontier.

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