The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Abu Mohammad al-Joulani meets with tens of activists in Idlib and confirms his organization’s readiness to repel regime forces’ attacks, denying any agreement on handing over the areas

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned from several reliable sources that Abu Mohammad al-Joulani, the commander-in-chief of “Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham”, carried out a meeting on Thursday with media activists, where the meeting included about 50 activists and took place somewhere in Idlib countryside, after the “Media Office of Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham” sent invitation to them, where the meeting of al-Joulani came to discuss the field and military situations north of Syria, and the military operation of the regime and Russia on the area, and the sources that were present at the meeting told the Syrian Observatory that al-Joulani justified losing Kafr Nabudah and Qal’aat al-Madiq to the regime forces due to the fragile location of them of which was exploited by the regime forces through firearm monitoring, adding that the civilians in these areas were preventing the factions from building fortifications there.

And about the military campaign, al-Joulani confirmed in his answers to the activists’ questions that Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham is prepared and is ready to address and defend the areas, pointing out that there are strong fortifications in other lines and denying the existence of any agreement to hand over these areas, and al-Joulani reviewed what Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham is doing of targeting operations of the Russian Hmeimim base, and the infiltration operations carried out by his forces behind the enemy lines -as he put it-, considering that these operations have hurt Russia and the regime, and about the issue of Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham preventing factions of the National Army from entering areas in Idlib to defend those areas, al-Joulani said that factions of the National Army have great confrontation lines with the regime and can open those fronts and relieve the pressure in the countryside of Idlib and Hama if they own their decision.
The meeting of al-Joulani for the first time with this number of “activists” comes in a time when the area is witnessing the heaviest escalation by the Russians and the regime, which left tens of casualties and caused the displacement of more than 300 thousand civilians from their areas.