Syria says UN proves Israel-Al Qaeda connection

The Syrian SANA "news" agency is always good for a laugh.

Syrian patient in Israel

Here's a story they ran that got picked up by the crazy conspiracy site Global Research:

The United Nations (UN) has stressed that there are strong links and contacts between the armed terrorist organizations in Syria and the Zionist entity.

The UN remarks came in a report by its Secretary General on the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) during the period from May 29th to September 3rd 2014.

The report said that members of the so-called “armed opposition” transported 47 of its wounded members through “the ceasefire line” and handed them to the “Israeli army”, indicating that the “Israeli army” handed 43 of the wounded who were treated at the Israeli hospitals to the armed terrorist organizations.

The report talked about the attack of the terrorist organizations including Jabhat al-Nusra against the positions of the UNDOF personnel and how they seized a number of their vehicles and equipment and how they used the UN uniform.

It added that the UNDOF Commander was in constant and regular contact with the Syrian Arab army in the area as the army provided all types of support to guarantee the evacuation of the UNDOF personnel.

The report affirms what Syria has always mentioned about the close relations between the armed terrorist organizations and the Israeli occupation authorities which shows how much the Israeli occupation is participating in the sinister conspiracy hatched against Syria.

The cooperation between the terrorist organization of Jabhat al-Nusra which has been designated as a terrorist group by the UN and the Israeli occupation authorities shows that Israel supports a terrorist organization which requires a response from the international community.

OK, so what did this smoking gun UN report say? Actually, it is quite interesting:

Throughout the reporting period, UNDOF frequently observed armed members of the opposition interacting with IDF across the ceasefire line in the vicinity of United Nations position 85. UNDOF observed armed members of the opposition transferring 47 wounded persons from the Bravo side across the ceasefire line to IDF, and IDF on the Alpha side handing over 43 treated individuals to the armed members of the opposition on the Bravo side.

The reporting period is May 29-September 3. Al Nusra is supposed to have taken over the Quneitra area (the crossing between Israel and Syria) on August 28. So whatever the UNDOF observed, it was not between Israel and Al Nusra.

So what's going on?

The answer can be seen from this Times of Israel article this week, an interview with a Free Syrian Army official.

Since the capture of FSA commander Sharif as-Safouri by the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front in July, Israel has reduced the number of injured Syrian opposition fighters received for medical treatment, the commander said. Safouri, the commander of Al-Haramein Brigade, was the main coordinator of medical treatment with Israeli authorities.

So Israel did have a contact from the rebels for coordinating patient transfers - a commander for the Free Syrian Army, not the jihadist Al Nusra group.

Syria, of course, tries to conflate the two.

That article also says:

No more than 150 fighters belonging to al-Nusra Front are present along the Syrian border with Israel, the commander asserted, claiming that more Islamists are based further east, in the Daraa province. The border area, including the Quneitra crossing, is being held by moderate opposition groups, he asserted.

I have no idea if that is true - there is a video of a black Al Nusra flag flying over Quneitra - but it seems fairly clear that any coordination between Israel and the Syrian opposition has been with the Free Syrian Army, not the jihadists who want to destroy Israel.