US
President Barack Obama will convene a heads of state meeting at the UN
Security Council in September to address the threat of foreign fighters
in Syria, according to US deputy national security adviser
Ben Rhodes.
Speaking at a press briefing
on Aug. 22, Rhodes said the United States considers foreign fighters
returning from Syria a threat to US "homeland security" and the Obama
administration expects "to enlist the support of partners in the region
and the international community" to contain and defeat the Islamic State
(IS).
The shift to a more aggressive US strategy to
combat foreign fighters puts pressure on Washington’s regional allies to
show a new accountability in their actions against IS.
On Aug. 24, foreign ministers from Saudi
Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Egypt met in Jeddah
to discuss the Syria war and the threat from extremists. The next day,
Iran’s undersecretary for Arab and African affairs, Hossein-Amir
Abdollahian arrived in Saudi Arabia to discuss regional matters,
including Syria, with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal.
Ali Hashem reports
that these states “have all arrived at this conclusion: Any tactical
advantage they might have in a particular area does not stand up to the
strategic threat of IS. Moreover, the status quo and ongoing side
battles are only providing IS with opportunities to expand and become a
power in the region, especially given the situation on the ground,
including IS control over water and energy resources, which contributes
to making it an even bigger threat to neighboring states.”
Abdulmajeed al-Buluwi writes
for Al-Monitor that the stakes are high for Riyadh: These jihadist
groups "pose a security and ideological threat to the Saudi political
system, as they are based on the same religious sources that the Saudi
state is built upon."
Turkey, in particular, could face increased scrutiny for its policies toward Syria.
Kadri Gursel blames Turkey for contributing to the growth of the jihadist threat in Syria:
“If Turkey had not opened its border with
Syria in both directions to al-Qaeda-derivative Islamic State (IS), if
so many fighters had not crossed the border into Syria with their guns
and equipment and if this group had not used Turkey as a base, IS could
not have amassed its current strength in Syria.”
Turkey is now experiencing the blowback from its Syria policy that
this column warned about in January. Bunyamin Aygun, a Turkish photojournalist held captive by IS for 40 days, told Al-Monitor’s
Amberin Zaman
that his captors, who cursed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as infidels, “claimed that if Turkey
sealed the border gates that were under IS control they would hit one
Turkish village after the other and trigger a civil war inside Turkey.”
President Obama’s plan to develop new counterterrorism alliances, as he outlined in a
speech at the United States Military Academy on May 28, is more relevant than ever. In February,
this column
called for “a new, regionally based mechanism to address
counterterrorism taken up by those countries most affected by the rise
of forces affiliated with al-Qaeda and jihadists, including Turkey,
Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. … Over time, this dialogue could be
expanded to bring in Iran and Saudi Arabia as well as other countries
affected by the growing terrorist threat from Syrian-based jihadists.”
There is an all too obvious strategic
rationale in recognizing that the Syrian military could be an asset in
defeating IS, whose foreign fighters are now described as a threat to
the US homeland. There may be a slow and quiet trend in this
direction. While no one is calling for the West to embrace Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad, especially given the crimes and excesses his
government has carried out during the war, no one has ever accused Assad
of being a threat to the US homeland, as is the case with IS, which is
also a mortal enemy of the Syrian government.
An alternative policy — intensified arming of
moderate Syrian opposition forces, with the intent of their defeating
both the Syrian government and IS — seems not only unrealistic, but a
recipe for more war, more refugees and more ungoverned spaces; in other
words, a perfect setting for the further proliferation of extremists and
armed groups. When advocating for regime change in Syria, some might
consider what is taking place in Libya.
US Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., wrote this week in the
Wall Street Journal: “Some
now speculate Mr. Kerry and the administration might have to walk back
or at least mute their critiques of Assad in the interest of defeating
the Islamic State.”
In the meantime, the Syrian people are paying a terrible price for what UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Antonio Guterres this week called “the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era.”
Edward Dark writes, “The
very survival of the rebel movement in Aleppo hangs in the balance,
with serious implications should it be replaced by the terrorist Islamic
State.”
Dark adds that while residents fear an IS victory, “many of Aleppo’s
residents have little sympathy for the rebels, whom they largely blame
for destroying their city.”
Alawites in areas under government control are also watching the rapid advance of IS with unease.
An Al-Monitor correspondent in Syria
reports that the mood is grim: “As
IS and Jabhat al-Nusra move closer to Alawite areas, Alawite residents
prepare for what many here see as an existential fight.”
Tensions have also flared between groups of
Bedouin and Druze in Suwayda near Daraa, known as the birthplace of the
revolution, which had previously been untouched by heavy fighting.
Khaled Atallah writes,
“The confrontations were ignited by the Aug. 14 arrest of Bedouin
leader Jamal Belaas. Bedouin groups responded on Aug. 16 by attacking a
car in the area between Dama and al-Ariqah in Suwayda, which is a
Bedouin zone. The car's passengers were injured and the driver was
killed, activist Rami Ismail told Al-Monitor in a small cafe in the old
city. Ismail said the incident prompted NDF [National Defense Forces]
members to target Bedouin gatherings, and Bedouin gunmen responded by
storming the Druze villages of Dama and Deir Dama, kidnapping some
members of the Popular Committees and raising the banners of Jabhat
al-Nusra.”
The complicated patchwork of Syrian battle
zones was brought home to Israel after Jabhat al-Nusra took the Quneitra
border crossing from Syrian government forces.
Speaking to a high-ranking member of the Israel Defense Force’s (IDF) General Staff,
Ben Caspit describes an Israeli view of the situation:
“This is a totally new reality. Once upon a
time, there was one address in Syria. Today, there are dozens. In order
to win [in the past], you had to beat the Syrian armored divisions. And
that is something that the IDF knows very well how to do. The army is
built for that. Today, the story has become far more complicated,
elusive, difficult and shadowy.”
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