Piers Hadil El-Shalchi
speaker
85 appearances
9 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Jun 2025
Piers Hadil El-Shalchi’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Up First from NPR · New Orleans Answers, House Speaker Vote, Golan Heights Tensions · 3 Jan 2025
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Well, we asked the Israeli military for comment about all those incidents. We're waiting for their response. And there's also been reports of anti-Israeli protests in various villages. In Sueza, for example, I met two young men who were injured when they said Israeli troops shot into the crowd. We're waiting on Israeli comment on that incident also.
And what are Syrians saying about this seizure of land? Right. So, well, for context, Israel seized and occupied the Golan Heights from Syria during the Arab-Israeli War of 67. And then they began settling the land. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes that.
And in 74, the two countries agreed to create this buffer zone in part of the Golan Heights. And that's the area that the Israeli military entered yesterday. So all of this is making Syrians worry that the move may mean more annexation, more displacement, and probably more settlements. Right.
And what have the new leaders of Syria, the rebel group Hayat Tahrir Hashem, or HTS, and Israel said about the situation? I mean, Israel has been adamant. A couple of weeks ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the seized buffer zone and said, quote, we will stay until another arrangement ensures Israel's security. And for HTS, not a lot.
The residents of the villages I visited said they hadn't heard much from them and HTS hadn't sent any forces to even protect them.
Well, this is the governor of Damascus, Meher Marwan. He's appointed by the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, Ahmed al-Sharah. So he's in his inner circle, really one of Syria's leading officials. Marwan met us in a massive, ornate room. He was very pleasant, wore a suit and tie. He only shook hands with the two male colleagues with me, and we had a wide-ranging interview, almost an hour.
But at the end, he raised the subject of Israel, which frankly surprised us. You know, remember, Israel has been bombing Syria regularly since the regime fell, and it sees some of the Golan Heights. The governor started off by saying that it was, quote, natural that Israel felt some fear when HTS took power, and so it may have advanced a little or bombed a little.
Marwan went on to say that Syria's problem was not with Israel and that Syria couldn't be an opponent to Israel and wanted coexistence. Marwan said we don't want to meddle in anything that would threaten Israel's security or the security of any other country.
Well, it was very obvious he wanted this message to be heard in the United States. You know, he sat up in his chair, made sure we heard him carefully. He said he wanted the United States to use its influence to help mediate this coexistence with Israel. A U.S. official told NPR that the U.S. had relayed the message to Israel.
And in a statement to NPR, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that it rejected any overture from HTS. And Leila, like you said, it was remarkable. For two reasons. First, Syria and Israel have been in a state of war since Israel's creation in 1948. They've never had diplomatic ties.
And second, this is a message coming from a group designated a terrorist organization by the United States with former affiliation to al-Qaeda. And what was the regional reaction? Well, first of all, the news got huge traction in the Middle East. Almost every Israeli and Arab media outlet picked it up.
The parts of the interview I used in my radio piece of his voice were played all over Arabic social media. And then that's when the backlash began. Israel and many of its Arab neighbors, like you know, have been at war for decades. And talk of normalization and normalizing relations is controversial, especially after the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians.
So HDS discussing possible peace with Israel was shocking to many Arabs and, in fact, unwelcome. And has there been blowback for the governor? First, the government itself distanced itself from Marwan and his comments with a statement saying that they did not represent the views of the foreign ministry or of those of Shara, which is contrary to what the governor told us.
And in the evening, he issued a video distancing himself from his comments to NPR. He said, I did not touch on the topic of peace with Israel and it's not my right to do so. And yesterday evening in an interview with an Arabic TV news channel, HTS leader Shara didn't address Israel directly, but said he didn't want Syria to become a source of political or regional unrest.
NPR's Hadil El-Shalchi in Damascus. Thank you. You're welcome.
They seem to be moving so fast. They really are. I mean, it's been a week of violent fighting between the rebel forces. and pro-government factions which are backed by Russia and Iran. Army troops withdrew yesterday from the fringes of the city of Hama and the opposition forces were seen celebrating in the city center.
We do know that Syrian groups have said that more than 100 civilians have been killed in the fighting.
Hama has been a notorious city since President Bashar al-Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad, ruled the country. In 1982, government security forces massacred thousands of people in an uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood at the time. Last night, a video online showed people toppling over a statue of Hafez al-Assad. We couldn't verify the video independently. Hama has regional significance.
The city is a main supply route that Iran uses to move weapons to its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, who's fighting a war with Israel right now. The Israeli military said that it conducted strikes on what they are calling weapons smuggling routes used by Hezbollah at the Syrian-Lebanese border last night. Hadev, remind us, who is leading this offensive? Right.
So the main group is called Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham. It's also known as HTS. HTS used to be affiliated with al-Qaeda, but broke off years ago. But the U.S. and other Western countries still designated a terrorist group. So, Mishal, for years, they've sort of moved away from a jihadist ideology.
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