ISIS negotiates rebels to avoid fight in Eastern Ghouta

 (Translation by Dani Murad)

The passiveness of “the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” toward the Syrian revolution was evident since the beginning of the crisis, since its violations against FSA rebels and activists have been on the rise, especially recently when sources informed Zaman Alwasl of its intention to withdraw from its positions in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus.

The state’s withdrawal coincided with recent confrontations with the Army of Islam (Jaysh al-Islām) in which fierce clashes between the two have increased in the recent weeks, and ISIS was accused of being responsible for the two incidents of car bombing in Duma, the assassination of the Its dissident judge Anas Quider, and most importantly, the incident of Souq Al Hal in which two of its members tried to threaten people in the souq of blowing themselves.

However, for the first time in history of the Syrian revolution, and in unprecedented move during its presence on the Syrian territories, ISIS has retreated slightly in Eastern Ghouta, alleviating its extreme tone which disdained previously a statement made by “Ghouta’s unified judicial body”, that demanded the organization to be dissolved, and resort to the arbitration of the judicial body, a legal entity established by signatories from all Ghouta’s major factions.

It seems that ISIS (dubbed: Daesh) has sensed a real alliance looming in the horizon seeking to expel the organization permanently from Ghouta, especially after the conference of the military commander of the Islamic Front Zahran Aloush, and the judicial body’s statement, which demanded Ghouta’s sons who are recruited with ISIS to defect from the organization and surrender to al-Mujahideen, to spare themselves prosecution and punishment.

Therefore, the organization later issued a statement totally different from its previous reply to the judicial body, with a clear yielding and appeasing tone, in order to stop the war, which was officially announced by the Army of Islam on the organization, according to the text of the statement, however, it justified its new stance, which completely contradicted the previous one, a few hours earlier, by its desire to prevent the bloodshed and the war that will only benefit “the Nusayri enemy" in reference to the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Paradoxically, ISIS hadn’t had any clashes with the regime during its military campaign in Eastern Ghouta, instead it retreated from its only military position there, which is filled with “Nusayri” and “Rafada” gangs, as it describes regime’s soldiers and mercenaries of Hezbollah’s Shiite and militias coming from Iraq, and in its new statement, it requested from the Army of Islam to stop the declaration of war, cancel all statements by the judicial body, and solve all rivalries between the two parties through a joint judicial body."

It’s the first time for al-Baghdadi group in Syria to announce their acceptance of a joint judicial entity, since they always refused this matter considering it an offence to their belief, and an acceptance of an arbitration from judges who don’t represent Shariah, which is the same stance that ISIS took earlier against the judicial body, when it considered its court contradictory to God’s law, and that most of its judges are rivals.