Syria Says It Held Talks With Western Spies About Jihadis

 As Western countries display increasing alarm at the strength of multinational Islamist extremists among rebels in Syria opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, a Syrian official was quoted on Wednesday as saying Western intelligence agencies had sent representatives to Damascus to discuss the phenomenon with the government there.

If confirmed, the assertion by the official, Faisal Mekdad, the deputy foreign minister, would mean that while Western politicians have publicly called for Mr. Assad’s ouster, their own intelligence subordinates were privately collaborating with Mr. Assad’s lieutenants.

In an interview with the BBC, Mr. Mekdad was asked whether representatives of Western intelligence agencies — including those of Britain — had recently traveled to Damascus. “I will not specify them but many of them have visited Damascus, yes,” he replied.

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“When these countries ask for security cooperation, then it seems to me there is a schism between the security and the political leadership,” he said. “Many of these countries have contacted us to coordinate security measures.”

Coming a week before planned international peace talks in Geneva on Syria’s future, the official’s assertion may have been meant to create an impression that Western opposition to Mr. Assad’s tenure is not as absolute as politicians have suggested.

The BBC quoted Khaled Saleh, a spokesman for the opposition Syrian National Coalition, as saying that, if confirmed, Mr. Mekdad’s assertion would show a “clear contradiction” between the words and the actions of supposed supporters of the rebels who had previously “clearly identified the Assad regime as a source of terrorism in the region.”

Western concern has been growing over insurgency groups in Syria linked to Al Qaeda, which have attracted hundreds of European jihadists, offering them training in military tactics that could be used when they return to their own countries.

The Wall Street Journal, which reported that European intelligence agencies had met secretly with Mr. Assad’s delegates to share information on European extremists operating in Syria, said the discussions had focused on at least 1,200 militants.

Quoting unidentified Western and Middle Eastern, the newspaper said the meetings had been the first such contacts with the Syrian authorities since European countries, along with the United States, withdrew their diplomats from Damascus as the country’s civil war deepened following the first stirrings of revolt in March, 2011.

The Journal said a retired official from MI6, Britain’s overseas intelligence agency, had been the first of the Western spies to visit Damascus on behalf of the British government last summer. The British Foreign Office declined to comment, saying it does not publicly address intelligence issues.

Intelligence officers from Germany, France and Spain had also been traveling from Beirut to Damascus since November, The Journal said, citing diplomats and officials with knowledge of the overtures, but the United States was not involved. NYTimes