allies like Egypt, Jordan and Turkey all finding ways on Thursday to avoid specific commitments to President Obama’s expanded military campaign against Sunni extremists.
Can they still be allies if they go back on their commitment to the U.S.A?
first American strikes inside Syria crackled through the region, the mixed reactions underscored the challenges of a new military intervention in the Middle East, where 13 years of chaos, from Sept. 11 through the Arab Spring revolts, have deepened political and sectarian divisions and increased mistrust of the United States on all sides.
The tepid support could further complicate the already complex task Mr. Obama has laid out for himself in fighting the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and Syria:
He must try to confront the group without aiding Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, or appearing to side with Mr. Assad’s Shiite allies, Iran and the militant group Hezbollah, against discontented Sunnis across the Arab world.
While Arab nations allied with the United States vowed on Thursday to “do their share” to fight ISIS and issued a joint communiqué supporting a broad strategy, the underlying tone was one of reluctance.
Syria and the United States were “fighting the same enemy,” terrorism, and that his government had “no reservations” about airstrikes as long as the United States coordinated with it
Egypt’s hands were full with its own fight against “terrorism,” referring to the Islamist opposition.
Turkey, which Mr. Kerry will visit on Friday, is concerned about attacks across its long border with ISIS-controlled Syria, and also about 49 Turkish government employees captured by the group in Iraq
an official advised not to expect public support for the American effort.
at least 10 Arab states signed a communiqué pledging to join “in the many aspects of a coordinated military campaign,” but with the qualification “as appropriate” and without any specifics.
Turkey attended the meeting but declined to sign.
in Baghdad and across Syria, where the threat from ISIS is immediate, reactions were mixed
But many Sunni Muslims were cynical about battling an organization that evolved from jihadist groups fighting American occupation.
Members of Iraq’s Shiite majority cheered the prospect of American help.
ISIS has avowed enemies on both sides of the region’s Sunni-Shiite divide.
For Shiites, whom ISIS views as apostates deserving death, the group poses an existential threat, yet Shiite-led Iran, a longtime foe of the United States, is excluded from the coalition.
Egypt and Syria, revolts that Sunni Islamists saw as their chance at power have been rolled back or brutally thwarted.
“The Sunnis need to feel that they have a voice in their capitals,” said Ibrahim Hamidi,
“Otherwise, you push more Sunnis toward ISIS.”
But that, he said, would require fancy footwork from Mr. Obama to “make it clear this is about American security, not about favoring any side in the Syrian civil conflict.”
Mr. Crocker said American attacks would “get people’s attention in Raqqa and elsewhere,”
Members of a range of Syrian insurgent groups that consider ISIS an enemy said they, too, opposed American strikes unless they also targeted the government.
And even those most supportive of the strikes — members of the American-vetted groups that stand to gain new aid to fight ISIS — complained that the United States had abetted the extremists’ rise by failing to help other insurgents earlier. They said the United States was attacking ISIS now only because the group threatened it as well as the broader world.
"They're claiming to represent all Muslims everywhere — they have declared the establishment of a new caliphate,"
the abbreviation IS — Blank says he's seen its usage increase over the past two months.
the self-declared Islamic State" or some equivalent phrase, use ISIS in later references and, when necessary, explain that ISIL is another widely used acronym.)
That's a direct translation of the group's full name in Arabic, but "Syria" in this case means "Greater Syria" — not the modern nation by that name.
"It refers to Syria, Lebanon, parts of Turkey, parts of what are now Jordan," Blank explains. "The 'S' in the Arabic is "al-Sham."
It's a bit confusing: the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria-but-not-just-"Syria."
preferred by the Obama administration translates "al-Sham" as "the Levant," another name for the same region — one that isn't as misleading as "Syria."
The word "Levant" isn't very common today.
a once-common term that now has something of an antique whiff about it, like 'the Orient.' Because of the term's French colonial associations, many Arab nationalists and Islamist radicals disdain it, and it is unlikely that the militant group would choose 'Levant' to render its name."
"the Islamic State" — is a key piece of propaganda for the group, especially when it comes to targeting potential terrorist recruits.
none of these foreign fighters see themselves as terrorists. They see themselves as knights. They see themselves as mujahedeen. They see themselves as freedom fighters," Blank says. "So they're very interested in fighting for the Islamic State, and they do not regard what they are doing as in any way an act of terrorism."
"That's a totally different narrative, and it's one that the U.S. can facilitate, but the U.S. cannot really control."
U.N.'s Ban urges Assad to seek political solution to Syria crisis
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged President Bashar al-Assad to seek a political solution to Syria's war, saying this would help international efforts against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, al-Hayat newspaper reported on Wednesday.
In an interview with the pan-Arab daily, Ban said years of war between Assad's forces and armed rebel groups had allowed militants such as Islamic State to take root in the region.
Asked whether Assad would have any role to play in an international coalition being assembled to fight Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the U.N. chief said Assad could contribute by working politically towards an end to the war in his country.
slamic State, a militarily-powerful al Qaeda offshoot that wants to create a jihadist hub in the heart of the Arab world, has made rapid territorial gains in both Iraq and Syria in recent months that have alarmed regional and Western powers.
when Assad was sworn in for a new term as president, he vowed to recover all Syria from Islamist insurgents and dismissed the Syrian opposition abroad as traitors. But he also said he would be willing to work with the country's internal opposition, without giving details.
The United States has carried out weeks of air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq, but the outlook for U.S. air raids in Syria is much less clear.
While Iraq's government welcomed the role of U.S. warplanes to attack the militants, Assad has warned that any strikes conducted without his country's permission would be considered an act of aggression, potentially plunging any U.S.-led coalition into a broader conflict with Syria.
OPPOSING SIDES
"But it is important that the international community is united and shows strong support for any action that has to be taken to root out this terrorism."
Assad's military has stepped up air strikes
which controls about a third of Syria's territory
International and regional powers have backed opposing sides in the civil war, with Russia and Iran supporting Assad and Western powers and Gulf Arab states largely backing the rebels.
Ban also said a U.N. Security Council decision to support military action against Islamic State would be "an excellent and an appropriate way" to deal with the group but that its brutal killings were why, "some countries took some military action," in a reference to U.S. air strikes in Iraq.
U.S. President Barack Obama is expected on Wednesday to outline a plan to deal with Islamic State. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Baghdad as he began a tour of the Middle East to build military, political and financial support to defeat the militants.