The new President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, aka Mohammed al-Jolani, is in New York for what is widely being described as the first visit by a sitting Syrian president to the US in nearly six decades.

But even more significant is another fact: it’s also the first state visit to the US by a leading veteran of Al Qaeda and ISIS.

Just last year, al-Sharra/al-Jolani – the founding leader of Al Qaeda in Syria and a former deputy leader of ISIS -- was on the US terrorism list with a $10 million reward for his arrest. But after leading the overthrow of Syrian president Basher al-Assad, the US has removed that designation and welcomed Jolani’s ruling Al Qaeda offshoot government. After all, as Jake Sullivan put it at the outset of the dirty war in early, 2012, “Al Qaeda is on our side in Syria.”

Because the US is on Al Qaeda’s side in Syria, that also means overlooking atrocities under its founding leader’s watch. Since al-Sharaa/al-Jolani took power, government forces have committed sectarian violence against Syria’s minority groups. In March, hundreds – possibly thousands – of Alawite civilians were massacred in Syria’s coastal regions. In July, hundreds more, mostly Druze civilians, were killed in Syria's Suweida region.

The Grayzone’s Aaron Maté speaks to members of two Syrian minority communities about the ongoing sectarian violence at the hands of a ruling Al Qaeda offshoot that the US and allies helped put in power.

Guests:

Dr. Morhaf Ibrahim, head of the Alawite Association of the United States.

Hibbah Jarmakani, a Druze Syrian-American originally from Suweida province in Syria.

Benoit Paré is a former French defense ministry analyst who worked as an international monitor in eastern Ukraine from 2015 to 2022.

In his first interview with a US outlet, Paré speaks to The Grayzone's Aaron Maté about the hidden reality of the Ukraine war in the Donbas region, where the US-backed Kyiv government fought Russia-backed rebels following the 2014 Maidan coup. Russia now demands that Ukraine accept its capture of the Donbas as a condition for ending the war.

When it comes to which party is responsible for the failure to implement the Minsk accords, the 2015 peace pact that could have prevented the 2022 Russian invasion, Paré says. "I will be very clear. For me the fault lies on Ukraine... by far." Paré also warns that Ukrainian ultra-nationalists, who violently resisted the Minsk accords, remain a major obstacle to peace.

Paré worked as a monitor for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), a predominately European group. He recounts his experience as an OSCE monitor in Ukraine in his new book, "What I saw in Ukraine: 2015-2022, Diary of an International Observer."

Benoit Paré's book: https://www.amazon.com/What-Saw-Ukraine-2015-2022-International/dp/295986011X

International legal expert and ex-UN Office of Human Rights Commissioner whistleblower Craig Mokhiber joins the Grayzone's Aaron Mate and Max Blumenthal to discuss the ICJ's landmark ruling ordering Israel to prevent genocide by its forces in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Norman Finkelstein, historian and scholar, joins Aaron Maté for a live discussion about Israel's war on Gaza, the meaning of Hamas' atrocities, the question of genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and U.S. complicity.

Recorded live in NYC on Nov. 7th, 2023.

A new report offers the most thorough exposé to date of the OPCW’s Syria cover-up scandal, in which the world’s top chemical watchdog manipulated an investigation to baselessly accuse Syria of a chemical weapons attack in the town of Douma.

In April 2018, after dozens of dead victims were filmed at the scene, the US, UK, and France alleged that the Syrian government had dropped gas cylinders on Douma and launched airstrikes in purported retaliation. But leaks from inside the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons show that international inspectors found no evidence of a chemical attack, raising the possibility that the incident was staged by the insurgents who controlled Douma at the time. The OPCW team’s findings were suppressed and replaced with unsupported conclusions that aligned with the US-led narrative. When two veteran OPCW inspectors who deployed to Syria for the probe challenged the manipulation, they were silenced and later publicly defamed.

The report is authored by the Berlin Group 21, which is comprised of founding OPCW Director General Jose Bustani, former senior UN official Hans Von Sponeck, Princeton law professor Richard Falk, and academic Piers Robinson of the Organization for Propaganda Studies. Its release follows the Brazilian government's recent public shift in support of accountability over the OPCW's cover-up scandal. The report was submitted to members of the European Parliament as a contribution to discussions around the OPCW.

Aaron Maté speaks to Von Sponeck and Robinson about their new report, as well as the ongoing effort to challenge the OPCW's Douma deception and seek justice for the Douma victims.

Guests: Hans von Sponeck and Piers Robinson.

Support Pushback: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

John Mearsheimer, the eminent political scientist who has warned for years that NATO's Ukraine policy would lead to disaster, joins Aaron Maté to assess the state of the Ukraine proxy war and the dangers ahead.

Guest: John Mearsheimer. R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago.

Support Pushback: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

Former Ukrainian government official and diplomat Andrii Telizhenko joins Aaron Maté to discuss how, in his view, powerful US figures including Joe Biden have used Ukraine for personal corruption and the geopolitical aim of bleeding Russia -- all to the detriment of Ukrainians.

Telizhenko worked for the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office in Kyiv before moving to Ukraine's US Embassy in 2015. He went on to work for Blue Star Strategies, a Democrat-run lobbying firm that represented Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company that appointed Biden’s son Hunter to a lucrative board seat.

Telizhenko, who cooperated with Rudy Giuliani's effort to dig up information about the Bidens' alleged corruption in Ukraine, has been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for "having directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed, or otherwise been complicit in foreign influence in a United States election."

Guest: Andrii Telizhenko. Political consultant who was previously a Ukrainian government official and diplomat.

Support Pushback: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

In closing remarks at a United Nations meeting, Aaron Maté of The Grayzone notes that no one disputes the fact that a probe by the Organisation For the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) of an alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria was censored. Yet powerful states, including the US and UK, oppose any effort to address the suppression, including hearing from dissenting inspectors on the OPCW's Douma team.

Support Pushback: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

At a United Nations meeting that addressed a Syria cover-up scandal at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Aaron Maté of The Grayzone responds to a challenge from British diplomat Thomas Phipps.

Support Pushback: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

In a geopolitical shift, Brazil has come out in favor of accountability for the OPCW's Syria cover-up scandal.

At a meeting of UN Security Council members on March 23rd, Brazil criticized the OCW's “poor” handling of the issue and rebuked the UK and other states for blocking the testimony of veteran Brazilian diplomat Jose Bustani, the OPCW’s first Director General.

In response to remarks from The Grayzone's Aaron Maté, Ambassador João Genésio de Almeida Filho, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Brazil, said: "You are clear, you are logical, and you come here with data." The Ambassador then asked Maté for suggestions on how to address the OPCW's Douma controversy.

Support Pushback: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

Links:

Video: "Aaron Mate at UN: OPCW cover-up denies justice to Douma victims"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1BCtPgyxY

Aaron Mate: "Burying key evidence, new OPCW report covers up Douma’s unsolved deaths"

https://thegrayzone.com/2023/03/27/burying-key-evidence-new-opcw-report-covers-up-doumas-unsolved-deaths/

Aaron Mate: "In Douma cover-up, OPCW’s new smoking gun backfires"

https://thegrayzone.com/2023/02/03/opcw-smoking-gun-backfires/