How MI6 Helped HTS Seize Syria

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On May 12th, US ambassador to Syria 2011 - 2014 Robert Ford gave a talk to the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs. Over the course of his oratory, he issued a bombshell disclosure - in 2023, a British “non-governmental organisation” specialised in “conflict resolution” made him an extraordinary offer. They sought Ford’s personal assistance in transforming Hayat Tahrir al-Sham - the Al Qaeda and ISIS-offshoot that now claims to rule Syria - from ‘terrorists’ into politicians.

The NGO was particularly interested in rebranding Ahmed Hussein Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammad Jolani, who is now Syria’s self-appointed President. Captured as a senior Al Qaeda commander in Mosul, Iraq in 2006, he was inexplicably released from US custody in 2011, just as the foreign-fomented Syrian “revolution” was brewing. Ford explained he met Sharaa on two separate occasions, first in September 2023, then in January 2024 after HTS had seized Damascus. Reportedly, he was completely unrepentant about his militant past:

“[Sharaa] never apologized, never apologized, for the terrorist attacks in Iraq or Syria…But he also said, ‘now I am governing an opposition-held area of north west Syria, and I am learning that the tactics and the principles I was following in Iraq do not apply when you actually have to govern four million people’…This guy rejected elections in Iraq…he was blowing up polling stations, and he did not apologize for that. I want to emphasize that.”

Ford’s comments provide persuasive proof that far from capturing power in Syria in late 2024 in the manner of lightning on a dark night, HTS had for years in advance been concertedly and covertly groomed by Western powers to replace Bashar Assad’s government, with Britain leading the effort. Ever since Ford’s remarks became public, speculation has abounded about which “non-governmental organisation” was responsible for assisting the group, and Sharaa in its crusade. On May 22nd, Independent Arabia revealed the firm in question was Inter-Mediate.

The Arabic-language report - and its significance - was noticed by few in the West, with the notable exception of independent journalist Vanessa Beeley. Inter-Mediate was founded in 2011 by Jonathan Powell, chief of staff to then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair 1997 - 2007. In November 2024, mere days before HTS took power in Syria, he became current premier Keir Starmer’s National Security Advisor, “coordinating all UK foreign policy, security, defence, Europe, and international economic issues from 10 Downing Street.”

Jonathan Powell

Powell’s Whitehall homecoming was an extraordinary development. He had not only been lucratively toiling in the private sector for two decades, but was intimately involved in Blair’s push for the criminal 2003 Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. Most other officials and state apparatchiks implicated in that disgrace have long-since been purged from positions of power, with no hope of return. Now though, as The Spectator records, Powell “may have more influence over foreign policy than anyone in government after the Prime Minister himself”:

“He is one of the few senior officials responsible for the Iraq war who has managed a return to the corridors - and the sofas - of power. The historical record shows that he had doubts about Iraq’s WMDs, but thought Saddam Hussein had to go ‘because he was a ruthless dictator suppressing his people’. This was, as Blair named it, ‘liberal interventionism’...[Powell] has the same instincts today. After Iraq, and Afghanistan, he still wants to save the world.”

‘Our Side’

Such hubris is writ large throughout Inter-Mediate’s website. Powell’s purported inspiration for founding the firm was “to share lessons from the Northern Ireland peace talks and help other leaders navigating similar dilemmas.” The company’s stated “mission” is to “advance conflict resolution and reconciliation through dialogue and mediation with the aim of achieving lasting settlement to violent and complex conflicts.” It boasts of its ability to “leverage” resources of “governments and international institutions that spend billions of dollars annually to deal with the effects of conflict.”

Inter-Mediate professes to simply “promote dialogue between conflicting parties,” not “advance any parties’ agenda,” while seeking “sustainable, long-term resolutions to conflicts around the globe” by “promoting participation of all key parties in dialogue processes.” The firm also pledges to ensure “confidentiality” at all times, “given the delicate nature of many conflicts.” It acknowledges that in “volatile circumstances…the potential cost of negotiations, both politically and in terms of personal security of those involved,” means a “confidential process is often required for initial discussions to take place.”

Which would be all well and good, except there was no “dialogue” of any kind between HTS and the Assad government before the former seized power in Damascus. The Al Qaeda offshoot ousted the popular administration, and has reigned ever since, with murderous force. The confidential consultations brokered by Inter-Mediate in respect of Syria were evidently between senior HTS representatives and their Western counterparts, in order to secure consent for the group’s military coup. This in turn strongly suggests HTS is the company’s client.

If so, the question of who or what was footing the bill for HTS remains an open and obvious one, although MI6 is a compelling candidate. On top of the company’s staff being comprised of shadowy diplomatic veterans, and reporting by Declassified UK indicating the firm reaped over £4 million 2010 - 2020 from the Foreign Office, the leaked emails of former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton indicate Inter-Mediate works “closely” with Britain’s foreign spying agency.

In March 2012, an internal State email sent to senior Clinton aide Jake Sullivan recorded how Jonathan Powell had “launched a new NGO that has already initiated some very interesting work below the radar,” and was seeking to pitch its services to senior Department officials. In an attached missive from Powell, he stated Inter-Mediate had “[set] up secret channels between insurgents and governments” in several countries, and was preparing to start work in Burma, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.

Powell added Inter-Mediate “work closely” with the British Foreign Office, National Security Council, and MI6. That Powell was offering his company’s spooky services to the US State Department in Syria at this point strongly suggests well over a decade before Assad’s fall, Inter-Mediate sought to replace his government with “insurgents”. An email the previous month from Sullivan to Clinton amply demonstrates Western powers knew precisely what forces were battling Assad on their behalf. It was headlined, “AQ” - Al Qaeda - “is on our side in Syria.”

Excerpt from Jake Sullivan’s email to Hillary Clinton

‘Leading Role’

It may well be due to the longstanding relationship between MI6 and HTS, via Inter-Mediate, that Britain was the first Western country to welcome and recognise their assumption of government in Syria. Starmer warmly greeted the news, declaring the group taking power meant “a more active role” for London in the wider region. In December 2024, British diplomats formally met with HTS representatives, despite the media acknowledging this to be completely illegal, as HTS is a proscribed terror group under British law.

Sharaa meets with Iraq war architect Alistair Campbell, and MI6 veteran Rory Stewart

Moreover, on February 19th, The National exposed how Britain “is wielding considerable influence in post-Assad Syria, through a combination of political connections, charity operations and a well-networked returning diaspora.” Powell is a core component of this nexus, with deep-seated connections to the country predating the West’s decade-long dirty war. His brother, Charles Powell, is a trustee of the Said Foundation, set up by British-Syrian businessman and philanthropist Wafic Said, who met Sharaa in mid-January at the presidential palace in Damascus.

“This personal connection and the work done by the Said Foundation” has granted Powell “a long-standing and extensive knowledge of the country and the issues it faces,” per The National. The outlet also reported that on top of face-to-face meetings with HTS following Assad’s fall, it was “thought he had established back-channel contact” with HTS via Inter-Mediate, dating back some time. The National noted that British intelligence-managed projects in Syria continued following Assad’s declaration of victory in the dirty war, and endure to this day.

This included the White Helmets, a bogus humanitarian group spun out of MI6 front ARK. Hamish de Bretton-Gordon - previously outed by this journalist as an MI6 agent who staged chemical weapons attacks in Syria - was quoted by The National bursting with ebullience following a recent visit to Damascus, proposing the White Helmets “run the emergency services now country-wide.” He added criminally-proscribed HTS “does not need us to tell them what to do” in government, but requires “advice and resources” to achieve its objectives:

“The revolution which toppled the old guard in Damascus grew out of north-west Syria, and the interim President…appears to be a viable leader. The Syrians I know, some very close to the new team, tell me they are the real deal. Britain is uniquely placed through the British-Syrian diaspora to make a real difference, and opening the British Embassy in Damascus cannot happen soon enough.”

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon

From at least 2013 onwards, de Bretton-Gordon was part of an MI6 operation to smuggle soil samples out of Syria to prove Assad’s forces had employed chemical weapons in the hope of triggering all-out US-led intervention against Damascus, about which Washington was hesitant. A mainstream report on these efforts, published six days after the ever-mysterious purported chemical weapon attack in Ghouta in August that year, quoted an anonymous “senior Western source” as saying “MI6 played the leading role” in the sample-gathering initiative:

“The American military wants more evidence before it agrees Assad has crossed the line in the use of chemical weapons. The question is what is the West going to do now? If nobody reacts, there was not much point in conducting the tests.”

With the revelation a shadowy MI6-connected “non-governmental organisation” was seeking to prepare HTS for government as far back as 2023, and enlisted the assistance of high-ranking US officials for the purpose, we are left to ponder whether the conspiracy to unseat Assad ultimately always centred around London. While British intelligence did not succeed in triggering an Iraq-style invasion by staging chemical weapons attacks with the assistance of de Bretton-Gordon, the White Helmets, and others, the foreign spying agency ultimately prevailed in installing its handpicked puppets in Damascus.