The British government declined to comment on a report that an MI-6 representative had met with the leader of the terrorist group al-Nusra.
On Monday, the Tass news agency quoted a diplomatic source in Moscow as saying that some information indicated direct and indirect links between some Western countries and terrorist groups present in Syria.
He said a meeting had recently taken place between Abu Muhammad al-Julani, leader of the Tahrir al-Sham terrorist coalition, and Jabhat al-Nusra with Jonathan Powell, Britain’s MI-6 envoy and former envoy to Libya.
According to the source, a recent meeting was held in the Idlib region to reduce tensions near the Bab al-Hawi crossing on the Syrian-Turkish border, and the central topic of the talks was the possibility of removing the “Tahrir al-Sham” from the list of terrorist organizations.
According to the source, the British side has suggested to the Nusra militias to refrain from cooperating with Western countries.
He added: “Al-Julani was advised to interview an American journalist in order to create a positive image of the editorial board headed by him with the aim of restoring it.
According to the diplomatic source, a number of British allies, primarily the United States, are expected to be involved in the process of renaming al-Nusra members.
The diplomatic source noted that in addition, an agreement has been reached to maintain a channel of permanent contact with international terrorists recognized by the UN Security Council.
The British Foreign Office denied the allegations in a statement issued Friday stating “Similar, baseless allegations concerning Russia’s foreign intelligence service have been made more than once.
“We will not comment on this,” a British Foreign Office spokesman said in response to a question from the Tass news agency.
