Crossroads in Idlib: HTS navigating internal divisions amid popular discontent mei.edu - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mei.edu Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
If the Biden administration is looking to correct Washington’s overly militarised foreign policy, one opportunity to redefine U.S. counter-terrorism strategy lies in Idlib, an area which U.S. officials once described as “the largest al-Qaeda safe haven since 9/11”. The north-western Syrian province is no longer that, for reasons explained below. But, in other respects, it remains what it has been for much of the Syrian war: a crowded refuge for three million civilians, the site of looming potential humanitarian disaster and a last stronghold of Syrian rebel groups. Its fate could also prove pivotal for the future of – and U.S. policy toward – Islamist militancy in the region.