Mark Curtis: The UK has spent £350 million promoting regime change in Syria 📂 Archived Message Posted by sashimi on July 20, 2021, 11:22 pm 20th July 2021 (quote) A controversial Whitehall body - the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund - has used large amounts of money from the British aid budget to support the opposition in Syria. Declassified outlines the extent of this funding for the first time. * UK has funded 13 projects worth £215m supporting Syrian rebels and their operations in territory taken from the Assad regime, in past five years alone * British government refuses to say which opposition groups it aids in Syria * Some aid projects have involved 'coordinating with armed groups' and help them 'manage better the territory they control' The UK government has spent at least £350-million promoting opposition forces and projects in rebel-held areas in Syria, Declassified has found. Several projects have directly supported what the UK government claims is the "moderate" armed opposition fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Whitehall's Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF), through which the projects have been funded since being set up in 2015, does not provide full details of its programmes. But Declassified has established that it has funded 13 projects supporting the Syrian opposition to the tune of £215-million in the past five years. Of this sum, at least £162-million has come from the British aid budget which, the government claims, aims "to defeat poverty, tackle instability and create prosperity in developing countries". This money is separate to Britain's humanitarian aid programme in Syria. The CSSF projects are especially contentious given the UK government's refusal to say which rebel groups it aids in Syria. Many of the forces fighting the Assad regime are Islamist extremists and there has long been movement of personnel and equipment between the various rebel groups. Project documents show British aid has for years been provided in areas of Syria where extremist groups are prevalent. UK funding to Syrian rebel groups began soon after the uprising against Assad in early 2011. The aid projects have coincided with a British covert programme to overthrow the Syrian regime undertaken with its allies in the US, the Gulf states and Turkey, from where some of the CSSF projects have been run. The UK has sought to install a pro-Western government in Damascus and nurture opposition-held areas as an alternative to Assad's rule. The Syrian regime has perpetrated war crimes including bombing schools and hospitals, alongside widespread torture, in a catastrophic war that has killed hundreds of thousands and created millions of refugees. The figure of £350-million is an underestimate since it does not include activities financed from the UK's so-called "black budget", including intelligence operations. The British government gives contradictory funding information to parliament and the CSSF is notoriously opaque, for example redacting the names of many contractors carrying out the projects. A parliamentary committee has compared the CSSF to a "slush fund" for financing projects that do not "meet the needs of UK national security". The 'moderate armed opposition' The British government told parliament in April 2018 that the CSSF has "funded some projects in which certain armed groups of the Syrian moderate opposition have been involved". One project run by the Foreign Office called "Syria security strand" was worth £28.2-million during 2016-17 and provided "technical assistance and equipment" to the "Moderate Armed Opposition" to help it "to hold territory from extremists and regime". One of its goals was to "empower the Moderate Armed Opposition in southern Syria to manage better the territory they control". Some documents recognise that extremist armed groups could benefit from British aid. One project, called "Strengthening governance structures inside Syria", was given a high risk rating over the "considerable presence of armed groups". Worth £27.5-million and running from 2016-20, the project aimed to "strengthen governance systems in moderate opposition areas". Led by Britain's then international development department, DFID, the project aimed to "enable the opposition to provide key services to local populations, providing an alternative to the regime and extremist groups". The project covered four provinces in northwest Syria - Rural Damascus, Aleppo, Idlib and Dara'a - which were recognised as "besieged areas" under "pressure from armed groups". The project involved "coordinating with armed groups in order to facilitate delivery of services". A September 2017 review of the project noted its launch "coincided with the... resurgence of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham's [sic], an al-Qaeda affiliated group, in Idlib". The UK government has been worried about jihadist groups taking credit for its aid work: "There is a risk of proscribed groups interfering in civilian administration or attempting to take credit for services delivered by the programme", programme literature notes. Extremist group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which was formed in early 2017 from the merger of several rebel forces including the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra, now controls swathes of northwest Syria, where it is imposing its hardline doctrine on the four million Syrians who live there. People in the area now endure the absence of freedom of expression or political opinion, have to follow strict rules regarding how they dress and cut their hair, while men and women are not allowed to mix in public. The UK government has been aware that its secretive CSSF programmes are controversial, describing one in support of the Syrian opposition as "politically sensitive". But the government has consistently cited "security reasons" for not disclosing which rebel groups it supports. Documents revealed in 2016 show the UK believed "moderate" opposition groups included Harakat al-Hazm, a force which fought with jihadists on the battlefield, and Jaish al-Islam, a Saudi-backed Salafist group which sought to impose a Sunni theocracy in Syria. In 2015, a British court case collapsed when it was revealed that UK intelligence agencies were supporting the same Syrian opposition groups as Bherlin Gildo, a Swedish national on trial for terrorism offences. Gildo was alleged to have attended a terrorist training camp and received weapons training to fight in Syria and was reported to have worked with al-Nusra. (/quote) -- Cont'd at https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-07-20-revealed-the-uk-has-spent-350-million-promoting-regime-change-in-syria/ Message Thread: Mark Curtis: The UK has spent £350 million promoting regime change in Syria - sashimi July 20, 2021, 11:22 pm 350 million... where have we heard that figure before? - Ian M July 21, 2021, 6:52 pm Well spotted : ) nm - Tomski July 21, 2021, 7:16 pm « Index   Searching