Member

Syria has proven to be a hotbed of extremism. The House will know that the group whose offensive first pushed back the regime, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham—or HTS, as it is now being called—is a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK as an alias of al-Qaeda. That should rightly make us cautious. Thus far, HTS has offered reassurances to minorities in Aleppo, Hama and Damascus. It has also committed to co-operating with the international community over monitoring chemical weapons. We will judge HTS by its actions, monitoring closely how it and other parties to this conflict treat all civilians in areas they control.