Syria’s new government has arrested two senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) figures, the terror group’s military wing has announced.
The Al Quds Brigade confirmed that Khaled Khaled, the head of the group’s operations in Syria, and the chief of its organisational committee, Yasser al-Zafari, have been detained in the country for the past five days.
Its statement claimed that the arrests had been made "without any explanation of the reasons" and "in a manner we would not have hoped to see from brothers".
The arrests were also confirmed by a Syrian officials and a Palestinian source in Damascus, according to Reuters.
Under President Bashar Al-Assad, Syria had adopted a more supportive approach to Palestinian Islamic Jihad due to its alliance with Iran, which funds the likes of the PIJ, Hamas and Hezbollah.
The Assad regime maintained close relations with Tehran and frequently allowed the Islamic Republic to transfer weapons to its proxies through Syria.
However, the fall of Assad in December already looks to be reshaping the region, with Damascus increasingly talking a firmer line under interim president Ahmed Al-Sharaa.
Al-Sharaa, a former member of Al-Qaeda, has distanced his country from Iran, calling its proxies “a strategic threat to the region” in interviews.
While vehemently opposing the existence of the State of Israel, Al-Qaeda has long remained suspicious of PIJ thanks to the latter’s Iranian (and therefore Shi’ite) backing and the former’s ideological clashes with the Muslim Brotherhood – of which PIJ is an offshoot.
While Al-Sharaa claims to have left his jihadist affiliations in the past, Syria’s apparent direction of diplomatic travel away from Iran and towards Turkey could inform his approach to proxy groups like PIJ.
He has also cut off diplomatic ties with Tehran, reportedly in order to secure the lifting of international sanctions and ensure stability following more than a decade of civil war under Assad.
However, Syria’s enmity towards Israel looks set to continue, with the Al-Sharaa government reportedly allowing Hamas to build up a strong base in the country. Jerusalem has also launched a number of airstrikes in Syria, with the IDF saying that the operations were intended to destroy military infrastructure which it feared could be used to target Israel in future.
Professor Ed Husain, a leading Middle East analyst, recently claimed that Al-Sharaa’s new ruling party, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, is closely aligned with Qatar, which Israel has repeatedly accused of funding Hamas.
In an interview in February, Husain called the new regime in Damascus a “Qatari project”, adding: “Will his country be a literal... Islamist state, or will it be a moderate Arab country following the route of the UAE and others?
"I don’t think we should trust what’s going on in Damascus.”
