-Analysis-
CAIRO — What tenderness and understanding! Maher Marwan, the newly appointed governor of Damascus, was beyond kind towards the Israeli government, in his recent interview with U.S. public radio network NPR, saying he completely comprehends the Israeli army’s decision to seize additional Syrian territory across the border, as well as its bombing of Syria’s military assets.
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It’s true that nobody expected the new Turkish-backed regime to raise the banner of the struggle against Zionism just a month after it led the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, culminating a 14-year popular revolution the regime.
Nonetheless, the way the governor of the Syrian capital — a brother-in-law of Syria‘s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, head of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, HTS forces — is quite stunning. His responses to the NPR interviewer reflected naivety and a kind of cheap begging toward the United States, doubled down on the approach of some other Arab governments that seek warm ties with the U.S. through avoiding conflict with Israel.
Marwan, who received the American radio team in a large office adorned with arabesque decorations, expressed his understanding of the Israeli aggression in Syria that began the same day Assad was overthrown. He said it was “understandable”” that Israel was concerned because of certain factions affiliated with the HTS rebels.
Just a “little” bombing
“Israel may have been fearful” Marwan said. “So it advanced a little, bombed a little,” adding that such fear is “natural,” according to NPR transcripts.
He added that “our problem is not with Israel.” He urged the U.S. to facilitate better ties with Israel.
“There exists a people who want co-existence. They want peace. They don’t want disputes. We want peace, and we cannot be an opponent to Israel or an opponent to anyone,” Marwan said.
What caught the attention of the American journalist who conducted the interview was that the governor made no mention of Israel’s bloody war against the Palestinians in Gaza for the past 15 months, not even a basic remark of human solidarity.
The journalist also noticed that the governor adhered to the strict Muslim tradition of only shaking hands with the male members of the NPR team, and not shaking hands with the female members. So it seems that Israel’s actions are permissible, but shaking hands with a woman remains strictly forbidden.
Arabic version
After his remarks stirred criticism in the Arab press, the governor sought to deny the NPR report, saying that he didn’t address Syrian-Israeli relations in any way.
But Marwan, who is inexperienced in international relations, failed to review the report broadcast by NPR on its website, which includes his comments in Arabic. Therefore, there is no room for any claims that he did not say this, or that what he said was mistranslated or taken out of context. The quotes cited I’ve taken from the Arabic version.
The most provocative statement for me was when he said: “it advanced a little” in reference to Israel’s seizure of the buffer zone established by a 1974 ceasefire deal between Syria and Israel. Do 500 Israeli airstrikes on Syrian targets in the past weeks —including destroying aircrafts, tanks, warships, as well as research centers — qualify as “bombed a little?”
Worldcrunch Extra!
Translation matters • This article presented challenges with capturing the nuanced meaning of certain Arabic expressions. For instance, the writer used the term بوس اللحى (Bous el-Lehia), which would be literally translated as “kissing the beards,” to depict how Syria’s new rulers are attempting to gain Israelis and American trust. While this phrase carries cultural and contextual weight, I opted for “courting” in the translation, as the literal translation risks distracting and confusing the reader.— Elias Kassem (read more about the Worldcrunch method here).
“Mama Turkey”
The more experienced al-Sharaa, who has given a wide array of press and television interviews to Arab and Western media, does not speak with such crude naivety about Israel. Still, he shares the same desire to build a good relationship with the Jewish State in order to gain the approval of the United States.
In his interviews in which he speaks in a calm voice, as part of his persistent efforts to make the world forget his image with the ISIS turban and the long beard that he recently trimmed, al-Sharaa says the Israeli attacks were not justified in light of the fact that his country is exhausted and unable to confront anyone.
Turkey will lead efforts to rebuild and arm the Syrian army at the expense of the Syrian people.
There is also the fact that he achieved for Tel Aviv what it had not dreamed of for many years. He removed the Iranian forces and Hezbollah fighters, and other Iraqi, Afghan and Pakistani Shiite militias, from Israel’s borders.
Western and Israeli press reports also indicate that once the situation stabilizes for the new regime, “Mama Turkey” will lead efforts at the United Nations demanding Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied Syrian territories. And of course, it will lead efforts to rebuild and arm the Syrian army at the expense of the Syrian people.
Courting the Donald
The military parade of HTS fighters in Damascus last week mirrored the towering challenge of rebuilding a Syrian military, given that those fighters were terrorist militia fighters, not officers of a conventional regular army.
The Damascus governor sought to court Israel in the hope that this would lead to US and European recognition of the new regime. Al-Sharaa’s last bargaining chip is the future of the longstanding Russian bases in Syria.
Moscow has already complained recently that Western countries have pressured the new rulers in Syria to end the Russian presence in the warm waters, something that may not seem very attractive to the incoming U.S. President Donald Trump, when he takes office later this month.
In his first term, Trump showed no interest in Syria. He had sought to withdraw American forces from the country. Last month he posted on his Truth Social network:
“Syria is a mess, but is not our friend … THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!”
Courting Israel won’t work with Trump, unlike with Joe Biden’s outgoing administration. Trump only admires those that project strength.
Marwan’s statement, “It advanced a little … It bombed a little” will only hurt the new Syrian regime which is viewed as if it doesn’t care about occupying the Syrian territories; destroying the country’s military capabilities — which belong to the Syrian people not to the fleeing regime of Assad.
