Alwaght- The Israeli Forum for Regional Thinking has interviewed Jaysh al-Islam Spokesman Islam Alloush who said a peace agreement with the Israeli regime is not far-fetched.
The extremist group along with Ahrar ash-Sham are the main rebel groups supported by Turkey and Saudi Arabia. The Salafi group, like ISIS terrorist group, aims to create an Islamic Vilayat, state, under Sharia law. Syria, Russia, Iran, and Egypt have designated Jaysh al-Islam as a terrorist organization.
The latest contact between the Saudi-Turkey-backed group— which is operating in Syria against the government— and Israeli figures comes against the backdrop of several meetings between the so-called armed opposition and what is supposed to be Syria’s enemy, which is still occupying part of the Golan Heights and continues to violate its sovereignty.
Spokesman of the terror group claimed that it is up to what he referred to as post-revolution Syrian government institutions to make that decision based on public opinion, asserting that the Syrian people would not be deprived of their aspirations.
Alloush made the statement in an interview with Israeli researcher and rights activist Elizabeth Tsurkov which was published by the Forum for Regional Thinking.
Tsurkov also questioned Alloush over the future of the war in Syria and the group’s stance toward Hezbollah and Iran. While he seemed optimistic about future relations with Tel Aviv, Alloush expressed the group’s pessimism toward Hezbollah, claiming the resistance is a threat to the Syrian people.
“We are not optimistic. If the regime had believed in a political solution, it wouldn’t have waged war against the Syrian people in order to remain in power,” he said when asked about the possibility of a peaceful solution to the crisis.
“Hezbollah is a gang that opposes the freedom that peoples, including the Syrian people, seek. Therefore we are not prepared to allow weapons to reach this organizations,” Alloush said.
The spokesman also denied Jaysh al-Islam’s notorious killings, violence, and suppressive behaviour toward its opponents, saying the group allows protesters to take to the streets in the areas it controls.
“Protests calling for our removal take place in front of our checkpoints. Jaysh al-Islam forces even show up to protect these protests. We also provide media coverage…”
It is noteworthy that Hezbollah has been fighting terrorist groups in Syria alongside the Syrian army in a bid to restore security in the region. The Lebanese resistance group faces the terrorist threat at its door from the east and that of the Israeli regime from the south.
In addition, observers are suspicious of Tsurkov whose involvement in the study of terrorist groups in Syria is seen as evidence of her relations with the Israeli Mossad which is providing intelligence support for these groups.
It is also notable that Jaysh al-Islam has used human shields in East al-Ghouta in the Damascus countryside as well as admitted to the use of “forbidden” weapons which proved to be chemical substance.
Zahran Alloush, the group’s leader who is said to have been killed in an airstrike, had denounced democracy and called for an Islamic state to succeed President Bashar Assad.
