Russian officials fear regional war may turn into a
world war.
A joke making the rounds among Russian officials
and hacks who take a keen interest in what is
going on in the Middle East these days goes
something like this : How will the Yanks deal with
the Islamic State group? They will create " Islamic
State 2" , a bigger and better armed group, and let
it deal with the original Islamic State group. And
what happens when " Islamic State 2" turns
against them as it happened with the original
Islamic State ? They will create " Islamic State 3" ,
and so on .
But seriously , the rise and spread of the Islamic
State group is no laughing matter. Now that the
US and its allies have finally woken up to the
dangers of the spread of the extremist group, the
worry in Moscow is that the hotheads in the
Pentagon and at Nato headquarters in Brussels
will decide to start hitting Islamic State positions
in Syria along with " other targets " there as well -
for instance, Syrian army positions.
US President Barack Obama has already
announced his plan to deal with the group,
promising to lead a " broad coalition" that will " roll
back this terrorist threat " . In Moscow , the fear is
that the US will seize this opportunity to intervene
in Syria .
The Libyan scenario
According to Valeriy Fenenko from the Moscow
Centre for International Security, the US can
actually use the presence of the Islamic State
group in Syria as a pretext to implement the
" Libyan scenario" .
" The Americans are bound to try to compensate
for their failure last fall, " he says . " At first, it will
be air strikes against terrorists and then , in
parallel, it may amount to helping the moderate
opposition . The US may start a creeping
interference, like it happened in Bosnia , " he said .
In any event, Russian diplomatic efforts are in full
swing. According to one Russian source, Moscow
is trying to prevent possible air strikes in Syria by
the US, UK and others, in the same way it did last
year when the danger of air strikes was growing
by the day.
" Our people in Arab and European capitals were
desperately trying to find some sort of solution last
year, " he said . " The threat of a regional war that
could escalate into a world war was taken very
seriously by the Kremlin. And this scenario is in
the cards again. "
The feeling in Moscow is that the recent Nato
summit in Newport, Wales , missed out on a great
opportunity to involve Russia in finding a solution
to the spread of the Islamic State group and other
militant groups associated with it across Iraq and
the Middle East generally. Not to mention, the very
real threat of these violent men entering European
countries , and even reaching the US .
" The Russians have been warning the Americans
ever since the civil war broke out in Syria that it
was very dangerous to arm the opposition there , "
one former Russian general who was in charge of
anti -terrorist operation told me. " There was no
chance that the arms destined for the so -called
moderate opposition would not end up with the
likes of the Islamic State . Not to mention that lots
of it was coming as well from ' liberated ' Libya."
The same bandits
What worries Russian officials is the stubborn
refusal of the Obama administration to talk to
President Bashar al- Assad' s government about a
possible joint effort in defeating the Islamic State
group in Syria . As Minister of Foreign Affairs
Sergey Lavrov said recently, it doesn ' t make sense
for the West to help the Iraqi government to fight
the Islamic State group but deny cooperation to
Assad who is fighting " the same bandits " .
Some Russian analysts are saying that the bigger
problem of the current crisis is that the Islamic
State group runs its recruitment campaigns not
just in the Middle East but in Europe as well.
Different figures are cited over the number of
Europeans who have joined the ranks of the group
in the past several months, but if you consider that
the number of fighters has risen - according to
Russian estimates , from about 6 , 000 in June to
over 30 , 000 at present - it can be assumed that
we are talking about thousands of young Muslims
travelling from Europe to fight in what they believe
is a holy war .
The senseless war in Gaza has probably indirectly
boosted the Islamic State group' s recruitment
campaign , making it easier to claim that the West
and Israel are hellbent on wiping out the Muslims
in the Middle East . It remains unclear as to why
Israel' s armed forces attacked Gaza during the
Muslim holy month of Ramadan and conducted
blanket air strikes that were bound to take a heavy
toll on the civilian population.
In the opinion of Russian experts , this looked more
like a smokescreen for US failures in Iraq and Libya
rather than an attempt to wipe out Hamas '
arsenal and top commanders . From a military
point of view, Benjamin Netanyahu' s war achieved
absolutely nothing, except perhaps giving Hamas a
boost in popularity.
The danger for Russia from the Islamic State
group is that some of its members come from
Chechnya and Dagestan , the two Muslim republics
in the south of Russia , and there is a risk that the
group can find sympathisers and supporters there
and even start to build a network across the
Caucasus . That is why Moscow is now calling on
all parties to make a joint effort to destroy the
Islamic State group before it becomes truly
international.
However , as the president of the Academy of
Geopolitical Problems Konstantin Sivkov points
out , the military option is only part of the solution
in tackling the Islamic State group. He says that
air strikes would not be enough and that it ' s
crucial to also fight its ideology and cut off its
finances that are now flowing through perfectly
legal banking channels .
The war against the Islamic State group is fraught
with dangers . It might get out of control and drag
the whole region into a much wider conflict .

http://m.aljazeera.com/story/201491165841895365

russians re bleeped.

hnmmmmmmmmm

American again, i knw it wella, i knw it wella.

supporting d rebels in syria during dat tym, i knw will still turn to sumtin big.
nw dey ar terrorist after funding dem finish nw u call dem terrorist.

thou, nt a surprise, it happens in afganistan 2, libya, lebannon.

The Russians are making very valid points here. Just look at all the recent wars US has engaged in #Iraq #Afganistan #Libya...those countries are in a total mess. IS is the result of US and Qatar arming unknown groups in the name of moderate opposition. And yet they still stupidly want to repeat thesame mistakes. Smh 4 America and their shallow policies! *though America is a strong country but sometimes they behave and act like kids. Hw do U̶̲̥̅̊ form alliance with Iraqi govt to fight IS but not with Syria fighting thesame group but U̶̲̥̅̊ still want to invade their territory...this is against international boundary consideration and it really beats logic!!