The man Joe Biden intends to appoint as his National Security Advisor if inaugurated as President told Hillary Clinton that Al Qaeda “is on our side in Syria” in a 2012 email. Jake Sullivan was a Director of Policy Planning for the State Department at the time, and went on to serve as the National Security Advisor to then-Vice President Joe Biden.

Sullivan made the claim that Al Qaeda (“AQ”) was aligned with American interests in a email leaked through Wikileaks’ Hillary Clinton email disclosures.

Islamist rebels who seek to overthrow the Alawite Ba’athist regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are heavily infiltrated by Jihadist elements, such as al-Qaeda. The neoliberal foreign policy establishment has long sought to empower Syrian rebels, attempting to remove Assad from power as early as 2010.

Al Qaeda and ISIS-aligned Jihadists have since gone on to attempt to purge Christians and Alawite minorities from Syria, in some cases making use of American weaponry either placed in the wrong hands or commandeered by terroristic elements. Western support for jihadist rebels may have prolonged the bloody and seemingly endless Syrian conflict for years, in turn creating a refugee crisis in Europe.

It remains to be seen whether Joe Biden will place emphasis on Syrian regime change as a foreign policy priority, with more information on the Islamist elements of the Syrian opposition since having come to light.

Biden has tasked other “progressive” warhawks to staff senior positions of his administration, including Iraq War advocate Tony Blinken as Secretary of State.