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How stable is the post-Assad coalition? Foreign Affairs Committee to hold session on Syria

24 January 2025

The Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a one-off evidence session on the situation in Syria, at 2pm on Tuesday 28 January. 

During the first panel, the Committee will hear evidence from Lina Khatib, Chatham House MENA expert and fellow and Simon Collis, the former UK Ambassador to Syria. The panel will examine the factors that led to the fall of Assad and will also assess the stability of the current regime, led by Islamic militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Questions are likely to cover whether HTS has truly departed from its jihadist and fundamentalist origins. Members are likely to ask about the role of outside powers in the fall of the Assad regime, including Turkey, Russia, the US, Israel and Iran.  

Richard Barrett, former Director of Counter-terrorism at MI6 and former head of the UN al-Qaeda/Taliban Monitoring Team, will give evidence in the second panel, alongside Paul Jordan, Head of Responding to Security Crises at the European Institute of Peace, and Professor Harmonie Toros, Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Reading. During this panel, the Committee will focus on the security situation in northeast Syria, the stability of detention camps and prisons housing Islamic State foreign fighters, and the likelihood of the Islamic State exploiting the new situation in Syria. 

Members are likely to ask about the relationship between HTS and the Islamic State and whether HTS has the capabilities to defeat any resurgence of the Islamic State. Members will also consider arguments for and against the repatriation of foreign fighters who joined Islamic State and their families.

Further information

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