The West must engage with rebel group HTS in Syria - Yorkshire Post Letters

At last President Bashar al-Assad and his wicked regime have been toppled by a number of people including the leader of HTS al Golani. I think we should welcome this and immediately make positive contacts with him.

Biden says “I am watching with interest”, Trump says “nothing to do with the US”, Starmer says "we are being cautious", the EU says , "wait and see".

Putin welcomes Assad and his British wife and offers them safe haven, Turkey pretends not to have been directly involved, Israel bombs Syria and puts even more tanks into the occupied Golan Heights.

Iran is furious at losing her main ally and friend who they have financed and aided for years, Hezbollah is massively weakened as are Hamas. We should not let this group drift back into the hands of evil folk.

Yes, in the past HTS had links with Al Qaeda and ISS, but al Golani distanced himself from them many years ago. He has approached the Christians in Syria, the Alawite Muslims who backed Assad, the other two types of Muslim factions in Syria and has let out thousands of horribly imprisoned decent Syrians. Yes, soft words are easy, but we should call al Golani a ‘freedom fighter’ not a rebel terrorist.

Give the man and his supporters a chance. Hopefully he will rid Syria of the Russian naval and air base, but he is unlikely to do this if the West is against him from day one. There is a danger that Syria could end up like Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Libya and have Taliban like policies but not if we genuinely help them.

Starmer has offered Syria £11m humanitarian aid - good. Thousands of Syrian refugees will now want to return home and we should assist them to do that. Syria has had 50 years of Assad family rule, but it could be a decent nation once again with positive help.