Vice President-elect JD Vance raised concerns on Sunday about the Syrian rebels who have ousted Syria’s authoritarian leader Bashar Al-Assad, saying that some of the rebels are an “offshoot of ISIS.”
Assad’s regime collapsed this weekend after a stunning turnaround after nearly 14 years of conflict. The deposed Syrian leader reportedly fled the country as rebels took control of the major Syrian city of Homs as well as the capital Damascus.
Various rebel groups continue to operate in Syria, with different regional and international allies. The principle rebel group that has led the charge to depose Assad in recent days is Hay’at Tahrir al Sham (HTS), which came out of Al-Qaeda and is designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. HTS was formerly known as Al-Nusra Front.
“As President Trump said, this is not our fight and we should stay out of it,” Vance wrote in Sunday X, formerly Twitter, post, commenting on the situation in Syria.
“Aside from that, opinions like the below make me nervous. The last time this guy was celebrating events in Syria we saw the mass slaughter of Christians and a refugee crisis that destabilized Europe,” Vance, who is currently serving as a Republican senator for Ohio, wrote.
The vice president-elect’s post shared comments from Josh Rogin, a Washington Post columnist who covers foreign policy and national security.
“Syria is free. The rebels won. The people liberated themselves from tyranny. Freedom won. Russia, Iran, Hezbollah & Assad lost. Historic. The road ahead for Syria won’t be easy. But it will be better than the past. The world should celebrate Syria’s liberation & help it succeed,” Rogin wrote on X on Saturday.
As President Trump said, this is not our fight and we should stay out of it.
Aside from that, opinions like the below make me nervous. The last time this guy was celebrating events in Syria we saw the mass slaughter of Christians and a refugee crisis that destabilized Europe. https://t.co/rUsbudKtZP
— JD Vance (@JDVance) December 8, 2024
In a follow-up post, Vance added, “Many of ‘the rebels’ are a literal offshoot of ISIS. One can hope they’ve moderated. Time will tell.”
Newsweek reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment on Sunday morning.
Many of “the rebels” are a literal offshoot of ISIS. One can hope they’ve moderated. Time will tell.
— JD Vance (@JDVance) December 8, 2024
What Rebels Have Said About Their Plans for Syria
Like HTS, ISIS did emerge from Al-Qaeda, but the groups have been at odds in Syria. Critics of HTS have said the militant group will rule Syria as an extremist Islamist state. But Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the leader of HTS, has said that his organization aims for all Syrians to coexist in unity.
“No one has the right to erase another group. These sects have coexisted in this region for hundreds of years, and no one has the right to eliminate them,” Jolani told CNN in an interview this week.
Jolani was formerly a member of the Islamic State in Iraq, which eventually morphed in ISIS. He founded Al-Nusra Front in 2012, but it became HTS in 2017 as the group tried to moderate its image.
“People who fear Islamic governance either have seen incorrect implementations of it or do not understand it properly,” he told CNN.
While the majority of Syrians are Muslim, the country has vibrant and sizable communities of Christians, Alawites and Druze, among others. Assad’s family is part of the Alawite minority.
How Syrians Have Reacted
This weekend, the rebels advanced into Damascus after capturing Homs, Syria’s third-largest city. In Homs, thousands of residents poured into streets after the army withdrew, chanting “Assad is gone, Homs is free” and “Long live Syria and down with Bashar al-Assad.”
Youths tore down posters of the Syrian president as rebels fired celebratory shots. Security forces left in haste after burning their documents, Reuters reported. Videos have circulated widely on social media of Syrians toppling statues of Assad throughout the country.
What Donald Trump Has Said
As Vance mentioned, Trump commented on Assad’s removal from power in a Truth Social post
“Assad is gone. He has fled his country. His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer. There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place. They lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever,” the president-elect wrote.
“Russia and Iran are in a weakened state right now, one because of Ukraine and a bad economy, the other because of Israel and its fighting success. Likewise, Zelensky and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness. They have ridiculously lost 400,000 soldiers, and many more civilians.”
The post JD Vance Issues Warning About Syrian Rebels After Assad Ousted: ‘Nervous’ appeared first on Newsweek.
