Jabhat Fath Al-Sham Leader Al-Joulani Criticizes Ceasefire Agreement: The Americans Have Placed Themselves alongside the Syrian Regime

In an Al-Jazeera interview broadcast on September 17, Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani, Leader of Jabhat Fath Al-Sham, the Syria-based Jihadist group formerly known as Jabhat Al-Nusrah, said that the Americans would find themselves up against the entire Syrian people, not just one faction, if they went ahead with the ceasefire. The Sunnis, he said, were now fighting "for their very survival." Al-Joulani warned that the "Rafidite enterprise," through an "American conspiracy," would affect the Sunnis in the entire region ten years down the line.

Following are excerpts

Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani: The truth is that through this [ceasefire] agreement, the Americans have placed themselves against the entire Syrian people, alongside the Russians and the [Syrian] regime. If America goes ahead with this, it will find itself up against the entire people, not just one faction.

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We, as Sunnis, are facing perdition, and we are defending our survival. We are no longer simply defending cities and villages. Today, we are fighting for our very survival. This is the situation of the Sunnis in Syria. If the anti-Sunni Rafidite enterprise succeeds in Syria, it will spread to the Sunnis in the entire region. Perhaps in ten years, what we are seeing in Syria today we will witness in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula. What we had not expected in Yemen happened at an early stage. What we had feared twenty years ago for Iraq indeed happened, just as the Rafidite enterprise wanted, through an American conspiracy. The US gave Iraq to the Rafidites, and that is what they are trying to do in Syria.

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