Sa’ar calls Syria’s leadership ‘jihadists in suits,’ urges Europe to turn away

In the wake of the killing of hundreds of Alawites in Syria, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says European countries must “wake up” and drastically change their approach to the new Syrian government, whose leaders he calls “jihadists in suits.”

“Over the weekend, the masks came off when [Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s] men mercilessly massacred their own people — the citizens of the so-called ‘New Syria,'” Sa’ar tells German media outlet Bild, referencing the around 745 Alawite civilians reportedly killed after clashes erupted between Sharaa’s forces and militants loyal to deposed president Bashar al-Assad.

“Europe must raise its voice: against the massacre, against the barbaric murder of civilians, against this distilled evil of the jihadists,” says Sa’ar. “It must wake up. It must stop granting legitimacy to a regime whose first actions — unsurprising, given its well-known terrorist background — are these atrocities.”

Israel has repeatedly declared its mistrust of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist faction that led the campaign that toppled Assad and that emerged from a group that was affiliated with al-Qaeda until it cut ties in 2016. Europeans, meanwhile, have cautiously welcomed Sharaa, easing sanctions on Damascus, though HTS remains a proscribed group.

“The international community in general, and Europe in particular, has flocked to Damascus in recent months to shake hands” with Sharaa, Sa’ar complains.

But, he says, the new rulers “were jihadists and have remained so, even if they now wear suits.”