What Reddit users asked our Middle East correspondent Richard Hall

Reddit users put their questions to Richard Hall on Friday – here are some of the best ones

On 12 April, our Middle East Correspondent Richard Hall took part in a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" from Beirut.

For the last eight years he has been covering the Syrian civil war, reporting on the rise and fall of the brutal Isis caliphate and the devastating impact of the conflict on civilians – both the victims of Isis and those caught up in the battle to defeat it – as well as the refugee crisis sparked by the fighting.

Here are some the best questions put to our correspondent:

What do you think needs to be done to prevent another reboot of "Islamic extremist insurgency" in the region

Great first question! The insurgency has already restarted. Thousands of Isis fighters have gone underground and formed sleeper cells across Iraq and Syria in preparation for the caliphate’s defeat, and they are already carrying out attacks.

In parts of Iraq, Isis fighters are moving freely in towns and villages at night, and there has been an uptick in bomb attacks in Syria since the caliphate’s fall. It’s important to note that the defeat of the Isis caliphate was just that — it lost its territory, but not its vast resources and its ability to operate. Isis was an insurgency for longer than it was a “state”.

In Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces was able to defeat Isis in large part due to the support of the US military. But Donald Trump has signalled that the US doesn’t want to stay there forever. The SDF is worried that they may struggle to maintain security in the recently recaptured areas of the country — areas that have been utterly destroyed by the war.

You may have seen interviews with people leaving Isis areas in the caliphate’s final days. It’s clear that the ideology has not been completely defeated. The large number of civilian casualties caused by the fight to defeat Isis didn’t help that.

More generally, stopping Isis in the long term requires removing the conditions that allowed it to rise in the first place. Isis was able to capitalise on legitimate grievances of the local population in both Syria in Iraq — everything from a weak state to rampant sectarianism, poverty, environmental change, you name it. It requires a huge international effort to give people in these devastated areas a chance to live a normal life.

What's food like in Beirut? How long does it take for you to research a story?

I could do an entire AMA on my love for Lebanese food. Let’s just say it’s hard not to put on weight here.

It depends on the story really. I’ve spent months on some, a day on others. I hope people can tell the difference!

What's the one thing that hasn't been reported that you would like more people to understand?

One thing I’d like more people to realise is how clueless the people who decide our foreign policy really are. Most countries have a layer of highly skilled and knowledgeable diplomats and advisors, but the decisions are made very high up, by people with a very limited understanding of this part of the world in particular. The implications are often huge.

The media very rarely speaks about Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), so what is it like to live under their rule in comparison to living under ISIS? Are they as extreme and violent as ISIS? I noticed women living under HTS do not have to wear burkas or cover their faces.

You’re right about that. There has been far less coverage of HTS, largely because they have deliberately tried to avoid the spotlight. The group is a descendant of Al Qaeda, and I’m sure you’re all familiar with their beliefs.

In recent years it has dissociated itself from Al Qaeda, but the core beliefs remain the same. It has played a much smarter game than Isis in trying to achieve its goals. It has undoubtedly committed war crimes, but while Isis was broadcasting its gruesome atrocities to the world, HTS tried to keep a lower profile, and made itself invaluable to other rebel groups who might not share its beliefs.

Eventually, it came to dominate those groups and now rules over most of Idlib province. Despite its cleverness, HTS is an authoritarian group that a vast number of Syrians oppose.

What is the deal with the White Helmets? I have heard conflicting reports that they are either guardian angels saving people from rubble or dissidents backed by terrorist groups who serve as a front to fund extremism.

This question comes up a lot, so I’m glad someone asked. The White Helmets have been the target of a coordinated propaganda campaign amplified by the Russian and Syrian governments, and pursued relentlessly by conspiracy theorists. I really don’t blame you for being uncertain, given the effort that has been put into this campaign.

The theories surrounding them are so muddled that it’s worth going through them: One is that the White Helmets are funded by the British and US governments to fake atrocities in order to create the conditions to enact regime change (ie. remove Assad from power).

The group did receive funding from both, but there was already enough evidence of war crimes before the White Helmets came along, from a myriad of independent sources. The US and UK undoubtedly wanted Assad to go, and funded rebel groups to try to make that happen, but why on earth would they need to manufacture crimes that the world had already seen?

Another is that the White Helmets were a kind of conduit for funding extremist groups in Syria. The reality is that the US was funding rebel groups in Syria to counter the rising threats of these groups. When these efforts failed and weapons began ending up in the hands of extremists, the US got pulled back on that funding. The other is that a lot of White Helmets were actually extremists themselves, and were working with those groups.

Is it possible that some White Helmets were former fighters? Of course. Could some of them have exaggerated or manipulated scenes? Yes. This is an organisation of over 4,000 volunteers afterall. But to suggest the organisation is part of some grand conspiracy is absurd. These theories have been fuelled by grainy photographs of unknown figures in white helmets standing alongside fighters, poorly sourced reports from bloggers who gave up any impartiality a long time ago, and a constant drip, drip of propaganda from Russian state news outlets.

Why? The answer is pretty simple. While rescuing people from the rubble of buildings bombed by Russian and Syrian jets, they would also film the carnage. Their footage of these atrocities was extremely damaging to both, and countered the government narrative that this was a war against terrorists.

I’ve maintained contact with a number of White Helmet volunteers over the years, and the vast majority are normal people who just wanted to do something to help.

What do you think will happen with Shamima Begum and other UK citizens who joined the so called Caliphate?

That’s what we’ve all been trying to figure out! It’s really uncertain. The British government has made it very clear that they do not want these people to come back to the UK. That has left the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is holding all of these people, in a bit of a bind. They make the point that these people were radicalised in the UK, came to Syria to join a group that carried out heinous crimes, and now they have to pick up the mess.

There has been a suggestion that international courts would be set up in Syria to try and imprison all of the foreign Isis members / supporters, but that’s incredibly unlikely because because it would require UN approval and Russia, a veto-wielding member, would block it on behalf of the Syrian government.

There is talk now of sending them to Iraq to face trial. But that would mean sending them to a country which has the death penalty, which could present significant legal challenges. That seems like the most likely option right now.

What will be the fate of the Kurds? will there be an Independent state of Kurdistan?

That’s what many people want, but I think an independent state is unlikely any time soon. The Syrian government has repeatedly stated that it will not stop until it regains control of the entire country, and it has a powerful ally in Russia to help it do so. The Syrian Kurds know they can’t rely on the US to be there forever, and so they have to reach an agreement with Assad. They are pushing for some kind of autonomy in the areas they control (which is close to a third of the country), but so far the talks haven’t gone very far. SDF commanders are far more concerned about what Turkey will do right now.

Seeing the cultural differences between middle east and western society, do you think the epic refugee crisis and backlash was predictable? Also the poor, for many reasons, integration of those refugees?

The refugee crisis was inevitable because of the sheer level of destruction and killing in Syria, but I think the international community failed Syrians in their response. Instead of recognising the scale of the crisis and doing all it could to help people find safety, many European countries reacted with fear.

As for the question of integration, it’s a fault of the media that negative stories about refugees and migrants are amplified. Millions of people — who wanted nothing more than to find safety — have gone on to make great contributions to the communities in which they ended up. The countries that have made real efforts to welcome refugees have been rewarded for it.