BEIRUT: Turkey has named an al-Qaida affiliate in Syria a terror organization to include the group’s rebranded name.
The change comes amid discussions with Russia over how to treat the Levant Liberation Committee (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham), which controls most of Idlib, and other rebels, as a Russian-backed regime offensive on the last remaining rebel stronghold appears imminent.
The Turkish update of a list freezing the assets of people and organizations with links to terror was published in the country’s official gazette Friday. It comes with an appendix noting that the group’s former name was the Nusra Front.
Turkey already considered the Nusra Front terrorists but the group rebranded itself in January 2017 and merged with other jihadist groups under the Levant Liberation Committee.
Though the group claims to have no direct ties to al-Qaida, it’s considered a terrorist group by the United States and the United Nations.