Tom Barrack’s Warning to Lebanon Against “going back to Bilad Al-Sham”!

An Implicit American Acknowledgment that the Ummah’s Unification Project Through the Establishment of the Khilafah (Caliphate) is the Only True Rival to the American Project in the Region

(Translated)

On July 12, 2025, in an interview with Arab News, the U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, Tom Barrack, launched a new series of statements that expose the American project in the region and confirm the depth of the crisis the U.S. administration is facing in implementing its "New Middle East" project. Barrack revealed that the United States facilitated secret talks between Lebanon and the usurping Jewish entity:"The United States facilitated behind-the-scenes talks between Lebanon and ‘Israel’... things are moving at a rapid pace!" Even faster, according to him, are the talks between the new regime in Syria and the Jews:“I observed the reality that Syria is moving at light speed to seize the historic opportunity presented by @POTUS’ lifting of sanctions: Investment from Turkiye and the Gulf, diplomatic outreach to neighboring countries.” He warned that if Lebanon does not move toward the American solution, it will return to Al-Sham waving the card of borders and political identity, and warning of a new fate for Lebanon if it does not walk the path of normalization and surrender:"Trump was brave in giving Syria a chance, and what happened since the West’s intervention and Sykes-Picot was not good...", “Lebanon risked “going back to Bilad Al-Sham” if it failed to act quickly on regional realignment.!"As for America’s allies from the minorities those it recently hosted conferences for and promised mini-states here and there it is now turning against them, stating through its envoy:"The American position rejects federalism in Syria, stressing that the country must remain unified, with one army and one government."He continued:"There’s not going to be six countries. There’s going to be one Syria," ruling out the possibility of establishing independent Kurdish, Alawite, or Druze entities.And he added:"The US is not dictating terms but would not support a separatist outcome: We’re not going to be there forever as the babysitter!"In a blunt diplomatic message that disregards all promises and commitments, he proudly announced the “pardon and forgiveness” for organizations that were, until recently, labeled by him as “terrorist.” He lifted that label from Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and opened the door to settlements for Iran's party and its heavy weaponry, despite it remaining on the “terrorist” list! He even turned his back on the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces), which had served him for years giving them a choice between submission or replacement:"We do not owe them the right to establish an independent government within the state... yes, we owe them the duty of treating them fairly... if they are not reasonable, then another alternative comes onto the agenda!"This is the logic of American politics: function in exchange for survival, surrender in exchange for American satisfaction! And this is America faithless and honorless.

O Muslims in Lebanon specifically, and Ash-Sham generally:We know that America does not care about the fate of Lebanon or Syria. It sees the region’s peoples as mere tools and pawns for its deals and alliances. What America really cares about is integrating the Jewish entity into the region as a “natural partner,” while dismantling what remains of the Ummah’s unity and looting its resources especially amid the global race for gas and strategic minerals, and its economic conflict with China.What Barrack said about Lebanon returning to Ash-Sham is not a slip of the tongue, but rather a statement with strategic depth. It reveals that America is fearful of the Ummah returning to its origin, to its unity, and to its Islamic political project. It is a statement that carries both a threat and an admission at the same time: a threat to those who reject the American solution of normalization and surrender, that they may be returned to their origin! And an admission that this origin the unity of Ash-Sham, indeed the Islamic Ummah as a whole is still alive in people’s consciousness, deeply rooted in the land, and present in souls, despite all the years of marginalization and the attempts to erase the true identity of this region. This indicates that the Ummah still possesses within itself the spark of Islamic revival, and that the project of the Khilafah which expresses the unity of the Ummah, not just Ash-Sham, and which is being fought by America and the Jews is still the greatest threat to their dominance and interests in the region. And this threat is used by Barrack and his administration as a scarecrow to make the ‘minorities’ fear for their fate under this alternative, thereby pushing them into the arms of the American project even to the extent of making them adopt it as their own.This confirms that the Ummah still harbors within it the spark of Islamic revival, and that the project of the Khilafah which expresses the unity of the Ummah, not just Ash-Sham, and which is fought by both America and the Jews is still the greatest threat to their dominance and interests in the region.Barrack and his administration use this threat as a scarecrow to make the “minorities” fear for their future under this alternative, and thereby push them into the arms of the American project, even to the point of embracing it as their own.

As for us in Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah of Lebanon, we can only regard ourselves as the primary Hizb concerned with such statements and we respond to them with full confidence:

• The core conflict in the region is a civilizational struggle between the Islamic Ummah and the secular disbelieving West a conflict of values and civilizational concepts. The West has never ceased plotting against this Ummah and oppressing it. Its colonialism began by destroying the Khilafah, followed by division and fragmentation. We declare that this colonialism will not end except by the establishment of the Khilafah Rashidah  (rightly guided Caliphate) on the method of Prophethood, which the Messenger of Allah (saw) promised would follow this current tyrannical rule whose end we are witnessing, by the will of Allah.

• These statements, despite their threats and arrogance, reflect one clear truth: the Islamic project for unity, expressed by the establishment of the Khilafah on the method of Prophethood, is what truly worries decision-making circles in Washington. It is reshaping their calculations of dominance and influence in the region. Even the Jews, through Netanyahu himself, have clearly expressed their fears about the Khilafah being established on the Mediterranean shores, and have stated their willingness to strike it wherever it may arise.

• The “minorities game” that the West is currently playing just as it once played to bring down the Islamic State (Caliphate) is directed at non-Muslims, whom Muslims consider citizens of the Islamic state: "They have the same rights and responsibilities as Muslims."These minorities lived under Islamic rule before and did not suffer injustice. Many of them even praised Islamic governance. When we consider what Barrack said in threatening the SDF and others he calls "minorities" that if they don’t comply with his agenda, they will suffer—we see that he has exposed his own government as one that uses these people for its own interests, not theirs, as it falsely claims! This shows the stark contrast between Islam's treatment of minorities and that of America and the West. History is the greatest witness and the greatest exposer.

O Muslims:The Islamic project of uniting the Ummah i.e., the Khilafah on the method of Prophethood is not the scarecrow that America and its envoys try to portray. Rather, it is the project of dignified life, honor, and justice. Barrack, whether he realizes it or not, has exposed that this Islamic political project the Khilafah is the only true competitor to the American project, and that the real fear in Washington and among the Jews is from the return of the Khilafah that will unify the Ummah and end subservience.

O Muslims:We in Hizb ut Tahrir/Wilayah of Lebanon call on you to shape your own future with your own hands, not with the hands of the West, nor through conspiratorial conferences, nor through the threats and statements of ambassadors and envoys.

Be as Allah intended you to be: one Ummah, not Eastern nor Western, leading, not being led; ruling by Islam, not by Sykes-Picot systems.

Return Lebanon with your own hands to its true origin - a part of Ash-Sham, and more broadly, a part of the Muslim lands and be the just Ummah that Allah Almighty described:

[وَكَذَلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطاً لِّتَكُونُوا شُهَدَاءَ عَلَى النَّاسِ وَيَكُونَ الرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِيداً]

“And thus we have made you a just community that you will be witnesses over the people and the Messenger will be a witness over you.”[Surah Al-Baqarah: 143].