The Peace on The Horizon - 75 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East (187)

 

(Japanese Version)

(Arabic Version)

 

(contents)

 

Chapter 7: The "Arab Spring" - A fleeting dream ( 20)

 

187 Syria: Enemy’s enemy is ally or another enemy? (4/5)

The Islamic extremists, Al-Nusra Front (now Al-Qaeda in Syria) and Islamic State (IS), have deep religious faith and high combat capability. They are willing to self-sacrifice in the battle. But the religious power was up to the top leader. They tended to split into several pieces. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi al-Husseini al-Qauraishi left from Al-Nusra Front and established Islamic State (IS). IS did not rely on foreign aid. IS aimed to get hegemony not only in Iraq and Syria but also in whole Middle East. They did not acknowledge the current border based on the Sykes-Picot Agreement which was drawn by UK and France during colonial era. IS planned to establish an ideal Caliphate Islamic religious state. They recruited young people living abroad by using the Internet and converted them to combatants.

 

Islamic State (IS) was a lone wolf terrorist group. Al-Nusra Front relies on Al Qaeda's network. Syrian Democratic Force was supported by Kurdish force with assistance from the West and the Gulf countries. All of them were anti-government entities. Legitimate Syrian government supported by Russia and Iran confronted against these anti-government entities. In summerly, Russia and Iran supported the Iraqi government and the Middle Eastern and European country and the United States supported anti-government entities. Situation in Syria was extremely in chaos.

 

(To be continued ----)

 

 

Areha Kazuya

(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)