Syria arrests senior PIJ officials after US sets demands for sanctions relief
Syrian authorities have arrested two senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leaders in what appears to be a move to meet US demands for sanctions relief.
In a statement published on Tuesday, PIJ's armed wing said that Khaled Khaled, head of the Syrian chapter of the group, and Abu Ali Yasser, head of its executive committee in Syria, were detained five days ago.
Al-Quds Brigades said the arrests occurred “without any explanation” and in “a manner we would not have hoped to see from our brothers, whose land has always been a haven for loyal and free people”.
“We have been fighting the Zionist enemy continuously for more than a year and a half in the Gaza Strip without surrender,” it said. “We hope to extend a helping hand and appreciation from our Arab brothers, not the other way around.”
There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities.
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PIJ has long held a presence in Syria. The group has been the subject of Israeli air strikes in recent months, including a 14 November attack on the suburbs of Damascus that killed 15 people, including several PIJ members.
Another strike, on 13 March, targeted the alleged home of Ziyad al-Nakhalah, the leader of the Palestinian group.
PIJ officials said the home had been empty for years, and that Nakhalah was not in Syria.
In December, following the fall of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, Israeli media reported that Nakhalah had fled the country, fearing assassination by Israel.
The arrests came weeks after a US official handed Syria’s foreign minister eight demands during a conference in Brussels.
Natasha Franceschi, US deputy assistant secretary for the Levant and Syria, gave the list to Asaad al-Shibani on 18 March, according to multiple media reports.
According to news outlet Al Majalla, the US demanded that Syria’s interim administration publicly ban all Palestinian armed and political activities, and deport members of these groups to “ease Israeli concerns”.
Other demands include allowing US counterterrorism operations inside Syria against those deemed to be a threat, designating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation and the formation of a unified Syrian army with no foreign fighters in key command roles.
Since the fall of Assad, the Israeli army has carried out regular air raids and ground incursions into Syria, sometimes wounding and killing residents in the south.
Israeli officials have frequently threatened Syria’s new rulers, calling for a demilitarisation of the country’s south and claiming the new authorities are a threat to the Druze minority.
Syrians across the country, including Druze in the south, have firmly rejected Israel’s statements and military actions.
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