Syria’s Nusra Front leader claims no more ties with al Qaida

Jabhat al-Nusra announced that it would henceforth be known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham – or Front for the Liberation of Syria – and said it no longer owes allegiance to al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaida’s branch in Syria is considering splitting ties with the global terror group, but the Nusra Front’s intention to make it more appealing to the West may in fact be a tactical move aimed at undermining ongoing talks between the US and Russian Federation on a military partnership in Syria. Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and author of “The Syrian Jihad”, wrote in a paper this month that since then, Jabhat al-Nusra “has transformed itself from an unpopular outsider accused of [Islamic State]-like brutality towards one of the most powerful armed actors in the Syrian crisis”.

(Adds quotes, detail) BEIRUT, July 28 (Reuters) – Al Qaeda told its Syrian branch, the Nusra Front, that it could break organisational ties with al Qaeda if it needed to in order to preserve its unity and continue its battle in Syria, in an audio statement released on Thursday. “Nusra is obviously menacing, but for Syria’s rebels it’s mostly something to be ducked and avoided – or appeased, if that’s what it takes to keep on fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad”. Speaking before the confirmation, analysts said such a move could damage the opposition to President Assad.

De Mistura says he will travel to the Iranian capital of Tehran “to make sure the Iran authorities are well on board” with a U.S.-Russian plan laid out last week in Moscow.

Rebel-held parts of Aleppo have been bombarded since Wednesday with air-dropped leaflets telling civilians they would be given safe passage out and providing maps to exit routes designated as safe corridors.

According to Pierret, Al-Nusra’s “centre of gravity” is in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province and the southern part of Aleppo province, in the north.

“It will still oppose the most moderate of opposition groups in Syria; it will still be viciously sectarian, and it will still ultimately seek the establishment of an Islamic emirate in Syria and the potential launching of external attacks on the West”.

Syrian state media are reporting that government forces have taken another neighborhood from rebels in the contested northern city of Aleppo.

The announcement comes after Russian Federation said its forces and the Syrian government would open humanitarian corridors outside Aleppo and offer a way-out for fighters wanting to surrender.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group says government forces have taken command of large swaths of Aleppo’s Bani Zeid.

A Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said Washington’s stance would allow militants to regroup since it would call for a ceasefire before distinguishing between terrorists and other opposition groups.

Syrian government forces and allied troops have tightened the noose on the main rebel enclave in the city of Aleppo, urging fighters there to surrender.

Although Moscow and Damascus described their new plans for rebel-held Aleppo as an operation to aid people trapped there, Western countries are anxious that the real aim is to depopulate the area ahead of an offensive to storm it.

Mr. Heras concurred, stating that if a new opposition coalition with Nusra was formed, this would “entrench ideological extremist actors within the armed opposition in northern Syria”.