... largely fell in line with their ideology.
The blasts in Turkey on June 28 and Saudi Arabia on July 4 were different in that the Islamic State was targeting Sunnis, the very sect the group appeals to in its videos and statements.
Reuters
Map of Iraq and Syria showing the areas
controlled by Islamic State
Muslims around the world condemned these attacks and even some Sunni extremist groups rushed to speak against the atrocities perpetrated by the Islamic State which speaks volumes about the lengths it ...
... Washington and Moscow in Syria.
These disagreements are unlikely to be overcome by small-scale counter-terrorism cooperation. It is possible, however, that the United States and Russia could come to a temporary consensus on the need to prioritize counter-terrorism in Syria and avoid a destabilizing regime change.
Taking a historical perspective, Russia’s emphasis on stability in Syria aligns closely with Washington’s historic reluctance to push for regime change in Syria despite tensions with the Baathist ...
... has failed to effectively deal with conflict in Libya, Ukraine, and Syria, all within or near its periphery. The situation in Syria has led to refugee and migrant crises unseen in the world or Europe since WWII; Europe’s response has been grossly ... ... governments whose missions are resisting pressures of EU policy, as racial, ethnic, and religious tension, fears of Islamic terrorism, nativism, and demagogues become ever more commonplace, it is terrifying to envision its future, too. An autocratic ...
... the fighting resumed between the Turkish army and the PKK in July 2015. Since then, the Turkish army has conducted counter-guerilla operations in the region. The general staff of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the military branch of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), reported the recent death of 27 Turkish soldiers during combats in the area of Sirnak, Gever and Nusaybin, three small cities located near the Syrian-Turkish border. From Ankara’s perspectives, the rising ...
... operations to one that contains a unified strategy and is spearheaded by the UN Security Council. It is extremely important to rebuild a solid international legal framework for the fight against terrorism, one that is free from double standards.
Once terrorism has been eliminated (or once the process is under way), we need to turn our attention to resolving the crises in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen. Negotiations must be launched immediately upon the settlement of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, which has become a chronic source of instability in the region that has spilt over into neighbouring countries and beyond....
... to compromise with and accommodate Iraqis Sunnis and others that created the current crisis with ISIS. The sad truth is that if Maliki had treated the Sunnis and Kurds more fairly, the Iraqi government—Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds united against terrorism as they were back in 2007—would have been in a strong position to fend off any ISIS incursions coming into Iraq from Syria. If anything, the internal dynamics of Syria spilled over into Iraq, not the other way around, and hardly related in any major way to the U.S. withdrawal. Conversely, if the U.S. had stayed the entire time, shoring up Maliki’s sectarian government ...
... particularly appropriate for Putin’s strategy because his methods of pursuing whatever gains he seeks pose risks that threaten to harm Russia’s interests more than those gains would help them: Russia is particularly vulnerable to Sunni extremist terrorism for a number of clear reasons and its moves in Syria, as I have written before, are only going to expose Russia to further attacks. If Russia is so concerned with 10% of its arms sales and access to a few military bases in Syria, I am certain the West would work out a deal to ensure these interests ...
... the Assad regime. Despite being labeled ‘anti-terrorist’, Russian airstrikes have been mainly in support of the
Syrian armed forces
. Moscow rejects calls for Assad’s ouster on principle: It accuses the West of trying to enforce another ... ... likely pursues broader strategic goals today which are easy to lose sight of, given the current dramatic events surrounding IS terrorism. At a minimum, some experts say, Moscow believes significant advances against IS would induce the West to gradually ...
... our military-industrial complex and our own tendency to overreact to terrorism that, in the long run, actually creates more terrorism by generating more hate, destabilization, terrorist recruits, and by playing right into the terrorists’ playbook.... ... in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula—it is important to take a breath. This could very well lead to massive escalation in Syria by France (and maybe Russia, in relation to the airliner attack) and maybe even by others if it turns out ISIS had something ...
The attacks will almost inevitably lead to an escalation of war in Iraq and Syria, as well as to changes in the balance of forces in the Middle East as a whole.
Although it will take time to truly evaluate the consequences of the November 13 massacre in Paris for the French, European and world politics, some conclusions can be ...
