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This article discusses theDutch involvement in the Syrian Civil War.
TheSyrian National Council, a coalition of Syrian opposition groups founded in August 2011, is openly supported by the Government ofNetherlands. In March 2012, theDutch Minister of Foreign AffairsRosenthal had a meeting in the Netherlands with representatives of the Syrian National Council. He emphasized that President Assad should step down and that the Syrian opposition should unite.[1]
In 2014, this Syrian National Council refused to participate in theGeneva II Peace Conference on Syria because participating in those talks would go back on their stance of not entering negotiations until president al-Assad left office.[2][3]
Apart frominternational legal justification for (Dutch) war actions against ISIL inIraq (seeDutch war against ISIL), the Dutch mentioned that theUnited States had appealed tothe right of collective self-defense to justify their US air attacks on ISIL inSyria to prevent an alleged immediately imminent armed attack from ISIL in Syria on Iraq.[4]The Dutch government apparently tacitly consented to their ally the US thus extending their allied war on ISIL to Syrian territory.
All parties in theDutch Parliament (150 seats), except two, supported this allied war in Iraq and Syria: the opposition came from theSocialist Party (15 seats) and theParty for the Animals (2 seats).[5]
The reasons for theNetherlands to join that American-led war on ISIL in both Iraq and Syria were:[4]
The purposes of that US-initiated war were according to the Dutch government:[4]
The strategy on Syrian territory was described by the Dutch government as coalition air attacks on ISIL.[4]
On 24 September 2014, the Government of the Netherlands decided to take part in “the military campaign” against ISIL (ISIS) which, as the Dutch claimed, had been started by theUnited States with the U.S. military operations in Iraq against ISIL (since 8 August 2014) and the U.S.-led military operations in Syria against ISIL (since 22 September 2014).[4][6][7]
The government of the Netherlands designated €70 million to fund Syrian rebel groups fighting the government ofBashar al-Assad. It provided support to at least 22 rebel groups in Syria from 2015 to early 2018.[8]
In an update to the official Dutch purposes and plans, sent to the Dutch Parliament on 15 December 2014,[9] the purposes of their coalition war against ISIL were still as described in September 2014 to include military support to what they call “the moderate Syrian opposition”.[9] The answers of the Dutch government given in February 2015 to Parliament made clear that, for the Dutch, "moderate Syrian opposition" meant only some (not all) groups that are part of theFree Syrian Army (FSA); for fear of “possible negative consequences” and because of “the sensitivity of revealing support to specific groups”, the government would not say which groups within FSA are being supported by the coalition.[10]
While no new statements were made about legal justification for the military support to what they call “moderate Syrian opposition”, "stopping ISIL’s advance" or "breaking ISIL’s military force", that justification was still a presumedright of collective self-defense (see September 2014) to prevent an immediately imminent armed attack from ISIL in Syria on Iraq.[4][9]
In June 2015, the Dutch decided to continue their participation in this allied war against ISIL in Syria and Iraq until October 2016.[11]
On 29 January 2016, the Netherlands decided to “intensify” the Dutch contribution to the fight against ISIL in Iraq and Syria.[12][13]
Militarily, this encompassed:[12][14]
The air attacks would be performed by the same F-16 squadron already acting in Iraq (seeDutch war against ISIL).[13]
This time the opposition in theDutch Parliament (150 seats) was larger than it was in September 2014. Opposed to this intensification of the fight against ISIL were now theSocialist Party (15 seats),GroenLinks (green-left) (4 seats),Partij voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals) (2 seats), Group Kuzu/Öztürk (2 seats) and representative Norbert Klein.[15]
In September 2018, the public prosecution department of the Netherlands declared a rebel group that it had previously supported, theLevant Front, to be a "criminal organisation of terrorist intent", describing it as a "salafist and jihadistic" group that "strives for the setting up of the caliphate".[8]
Support for Jabhat al-Shamiya
According to a revelation came in a news report on Nieuwsuur, the government of the Netherlands gave “non-lethal assistance” (NLA) to 22 armed rebel groups which Dutch prosecutors had labeled a ‘terrorist’ organization.[16] One of the groups has been identified as Jabhat al-Shamiya, which had been supplied with uniforms, vans and other equipment.[citation needed]
