​Schism in EU? Intelligence co-operate with Syria amid political freeze

This image obtained from the SITE Intelligence Group and issued on jihadist forums in a communique by Al-Qaeda (AFP Photo / SITE Intelligence Group)

This image obtained from the SITE Intelligence Group and issued on jihadist forums in a communique by Al-Qaeda (AFP Photo / SITE Intelligence Group)

European security officials are working together with the Syrian government to deal with the threat of European jihadists currently honing their battle skills in Syria. Damascus says there is a schism between politicians and security people in the West.

Intelligence agents from several European countries, including
the UK, Germany, France and Spain, traveled to Damascus to speak
with Syrian officials on the looming problem of European radicals
fighting the war in Syria, the Wall Street Journal reported on
Tuesday.

The meetings started at least in mid-summer last year, the
newspaper said citing anonymous European and Middle-Eastern
sources. Their prime contact in the Syrian government was Ali
Mamlouk, a special security adviser to President Bashar Assad.

The agents sought to share information on at least 1,200 European
jihadists, who traveled to Syria and joined Islamist opposition
groups trying to topple the Assad government. They cross-checked
the names of suspected militants against the information
possessed by Damascus intelligence services, wishing to learn
whether those fighters are still alive, their whereabouts and
which factions they were fighting for.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad confirmed that such
security contacts are indeed taking place, but would not provide
details.

“Yes, there are many countries who are approaching us,”
he told BBC.

“Of course some are waiting for Geneva,” he said in a
reference to the upcoming peace conference in Switzerland.
“Some are saying we are exploring the possibilities, some are
saying we want to co-operate on security measures because those
terrorists they are sending from Western Europe into Turkey, into
Syria, have become a real threat to them.”

“When these countries ask us for security cooperation, then
it seems to me there is a schism between the political and
security leaderships,”
Mekdad observed.

The co-operation with Damascus was also confirmed by Spaniards.

“Yes, there have been exchanges of information,” a
spokesman for the deputy minister for Spanish internal security
told WSJ. “Spain has consistently expressed its concern about
the dangers posed by these terrorists.”

Western governments had no official diplomatic ties with Syria
since early 2012, when they closed their embassies in Damascus.
Some Western leaders stated that there is no place in Syria for
President Assad and that he must step down for the conflict to be
resolved.

But apparently for security professionals the threat of
Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists coming back to Europe from Syria
carrying the experience they received in the battlefield is too
imminent to consider the political fallout.

A rebel fighter from the Free Syrian Army fires his weapon during fighting against government forces in the Salah al-Din neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. (AFP Photo / Mahmud Al-Halabi)

It comes as opposition factions in Syria continue infighting, as
an alliance of the West-backed Free Syrian Army, the
Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front and some other groups is fighting
against the Iraq-rooted Al-Qaeda group Islamic State of Iraq and
Sham, or ISIS.

The West-backed opposition hopes to get a stronger position ahead
of the Geneva II peace conference, which will gather on January
22.

“The regime did a good job of portraying the opposition as
radicals or extremists. But now we are fighting Al-Qaeda. The
regime isn’t,”
said Aiad Qudsi, the deputy prime minister
for the opposition’s interim government.

Damascus is coming to the meeting with confidence bolstered by
its recent territorial gains at home and the relatively smooth
implementation of the chemical weapons disarmament.

At the same time the Turkey-based political opposition remains
splintered and is yet to clearly confirm its participation in the
conference despite international pressure to do so.

Some in the opposition fear that Western governments may go from
cooperating with Syria on security issues to completely
abandoning the demand for Assad to step down, which remains one
of the key opposition goals for the conference.

Source Article from http://rt.com/news/syria-europe-security-cooperation-635/

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