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The then-Jolani was held prisoner by US forces in Iraq between 2006 and 2011. After his release in 2012, he founded al-Qaeda's Syrian branch, the al-Nusra Front, to fight Assad, Al Jazeera noted. As might be expected, some observers speculate that Jolani was recruited while in prison in Iraq.
The United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, or MI6) established a relationship with the Sunni Islamic jihadist political and paramilitary group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) about two years before it led the offensive that toppled the Assad regime in Syria, outgoing MI6 spy chief Richard Moore has said.
Moore chose to make these statements from Istanbul, where he also chose to deliver his farewell speech, as he will officially leave the leadership of the UK's secret intelligence service on October 1.
HTS, formerly called al-Nusra, was created in 2012 by the rebel commander who now serves as Syria's president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known by his wartime pseudonym Abu Mohammad al-Jolani.
Before causing the overthrow of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, HTS distanced itself from al-Qaeda and the Islamic State with a series of name changes.
Despite the revocation of HTS' designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the US State Department in July of this year, the group remains classified as a terrorist organization by various international counterterrorism agencies.
"By establishing a relationship with HTS a year or two before they overthrew Bashar, we paved the way for the UK Government to return to the country within weeks," Moore told reporters during his appearance in Istanbul.
According to Moore, John Ratcliffe, the Director of the CIA, while recently discussing a joint business matter, told him: “You really know how to do shady business.”
A British NGO specializing in conflict resolution sought help in 2023 to bring Sharaa, then known as Jolani, out of the terrorist world and into regular politics, Robert Ford, a former US ambassador to Damascus, said in May of this year.
A video recording of a lecture by Ford, titled “Syrian Rebels Win, Now What?”, is available on YouTube. Ford delivered the lecture at the Baltimore Council on Foreign Relations in Baltimore, Maryland.
Ford told how he met with Jolan in March and September 2023 and another time in January of this year.
In December 2024, after the fall of the Assad regime, then-US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken under the Biden administration called him to get his opinion on whether the US should talk to Jolan, Ford said.
Later, media reports speculated that the British conflict resolution NGO was London-based Inter Mediate, founded by Jonathan Powell, who currently serves as the United Kingdom's National Security Advisor (NSA) under Keir Starmer.
CIA contact in Iraq
On September 23, while in New York for a podium appearance at the UN General Assembly, Sharaa was welcomed at the Concordia Summit by David Petraeus, who commanded the 2007 US Army surge in the Iraq War and later became director of the CIA.
The then-Jolani was held in prison by US forces in Iraq between 2006 and 2011. After his release, in 2012, he founded al-Qaeda's Syrian branch, the al-Nusra Front, to fight Assad, Al Jazeera noted.
As might be expected, some observers speculate that Jolani was recruited while he was in prison in Iraq. Petraeus recalled that he was in command of the forces holding Jolani prisoner at the time.
However, Patreus' remarks certainly cannot be taken as an official confirmation that the speculation is correct. The relationship is by no means as clear and defined as the MI6, British NGO, and Ford links mentioned earlier.
Moore, 62, chose Istanbul as the location where he wanted to give his farewell speech, on October 1, he hands over his post as Head of MI6, or "C", to Blaise Metreweli, 47.
The transcript of Moore's speech, "exactly as it was delivered", is available on the official UK government website.
"It is great to be back in my second home, Turkey, a country in which my wife and I have had the privilege of living for eight years, most recently when I served as British Ambassador for four interesting years from 2014 to 2017," Moore said as he began his speech, speaking in Turkish.
Moore's connection to Turkey dates back to 1989, when, as a young foreign language student, he arrived in Istanbul to live with a Turkish family for a few weeks while trying to improve his Turkish.
The Moore family's connection to Turkey was cemented with the birth of their daughter, born in Istanbul. / Adapted from Intellinews /
Ata qe krijuan ISIS, Al Nusra e co. dihet se kush jane. Jane po ata qe pushtuan Irakun, Afganistanin, qe shkaterruan Libine dhe Sirine. Sa ngjan ky shkerrdhata islamike me Z-Elenskin. Shiko se si te shndrron demokracia perendimore? Jolanin nga radikal islamik e ktheu ne "politikan modern perendimor", e veshi me kostum. Ndersa kete ashkenazin e Ukraines Z-Elenskin, nga politikan e ktheu ne terrorist.