Orientul Mijlociu

The ever growing threat of jihadist movements to the civilized world has recently been stressed by a wide array of media outlets and politicians in Europe. As noted in a recent UN report, more than 25,000 foreigners from a total of 100 countries have joined militant Islamist terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIL). In Syria and Iraq, there’s more than 22,000 foreign fighters, while some 6,500 are operating in Afghanistan. The total number of foreign radicals in Yemen, Libya, Pakistan and Somalia remains unknown.

743534324The 2016 BBC documentary on Deobandis in the UK exposed what many of us knew all along. That the Muslim communities in the United Kingdom are not a monolithic and that there are some schools of thoughts that dominate terrorist violence and intolerance, while other Muslims are held collectively responsible. Most disturbingly, the vast and significant network of Deobandi madrasas in the UK have hosted globally designated terrorist like Masood Azhar, head of JeM.

Since the definition of the analytical framework of the term “jihadism” and its inscription in the annals of the history of international relations, the real reasons for the emergence of the acts to which it refers have not been elucidated until nowadays. While the United States of Zbigniew Brzeziński (architect of American strategy in Afghanistan and former national security advisor in 1998), Henry Kissinger (designer of “The Order of the World in 2016”), Samuel P. Huntington (designer of “The Clash of Civilizations”)» in 1993) and Francis Fukuyama (prophet of the “end of history” in 1992) took on the role of world policeman, the frame of reference of the concept “jihadism” defined and proposed to the rest of the world by the intellectuals of the White House is posterior to the scourges to which it relates. Brandishing the attacks of September 11 or “black September” for others as a benchmark for analyzing jihadism is an aberration and a stated desire to turn a blind eye to the darkest pages of the history of the industrial revolution. Because, as Jules Ferry said, “colonial policy is the daughter of industrial policy”.

As the Pope landed in Indonesia last week to urge a united front against religious extremism, it was the quick action of police that saved his life, uncovering a desperate plot to assassinate him with a bow and arrow, and a drone.

Numerous attempts have been foiled in the millennium since the last Pope was assassinated – but it was what police found during a raid of one of the suspect’s houses that rang alarm bells.

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Iran has built a network of Shiite militias, now fighting across the Middle East, whose fighters number in the tens of thousands. These militias include battle-hardened fighters as well as poorly trained recruits. They hail from countries across the Muslim world and have varying motivations and interests, but they have one thing in common: they project the Islamic Republic’s power and promote its revolutionary ideology. Iran’s Shiite foreign legion has played an indispensable role in preserving the Assad regime in Syria, but all the groups have expressed a readiness to wage war against all enemies of the Islamic Republic.

This is no longer a small matter after the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian Ambassador to share their concerns with him about his country’s support of this project.

Iran’s continued opposition to the Zangezur Corridor was touched upon here last month, where it was concluded that it’s relying on false pretexts to advance what it regards as its national interests. Since then, the Iranian Foreign Minister implied that the project would redraw regional borders, after which his institution summoned the Russian Ambassador to share their concerns given Moscow’s support of it. Here are five observations about this policy’s motivations and consequences:

For many years now, Hezbollah has served as a major instrument of Iran to take over Lebanon, not only as a territory but as a sovereign state. Many Western countries would like to avoid that and invest in the former “Pearl of the Middle East”, led by France. These efforts are futile in view of the Iranian circumvention apparatus, who’s main mechanism is allocated in the border crossings between Syria and Lebanon. No matter how much pressure is put on a state level, Hezbollah will survive and even prosper, as long as one does not put an end to Hezbollah’s control over these main smuggling routes.

Three decades have passed since Hassan Nasrallah came into power as the general secretary of Hezbollah, shortly after the elimination of Abbas al-Musawi. Over the years there have been several attempts to outline his personality, all of which clearly missed the true story behind this infamous terrorist, and in some cases even disproportionally praised him.

Iran-backed terrorist groups, including Islamic Jihad, al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and Hamas, have proliferated in number and strengthened their presence in the West Bank in recent years. The groups have established battalions (Katibat) in Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm and beyond. Iranian arms and funding have primarily fueled this violent escalation.
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FDD’s Long War Journal has identified 26 West Bank branches belonging to established terrorist organizations, and two independent armed groups.

Abstract: The key mission of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) is to defend the Iranian Islamic Revolution and create armed militias in the countries of its “Axis of Resistance.” Its organization is opaque and complex, coordinating combat operations with soft-power actions aimed at, among other initiatives, establishing a Pax Irania in the Middle East, a ‘peace’ of which it is the initiator and guarantor. Although the Quds Force’s apparatus in Syria has been under pressure from Israeli airstrikes, Tehran is sticking to its mission set: infiltrating Syrian civil society and sending fighters to the north, where the civil war will one day end, and to the south, on the edge of the Golan Heights, to establish a base against Israel if necessary.