US, region pivot to confront terrorist threat in Syria
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari warns of a "Islamic emirate" in Syria, former US diplomat Ryan Crocker suggests a channel to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Israeli President Shimon Peres says he would be willing to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
MANAMA, Bahrain — Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, speaking at the Manama Dialogue Regional Security Summit convened by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, warned of an “Islamic emirate” emerging in Syria.
Just this past week, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group, attacked the ethnically mixed Iraqi city of Kirkuk, a further sign of the linkage between terrorism in Syria and Iraq. The relative security of Iraqi Kurdistan, whose capital, Erbil, suffered a deadly attack in October along with the rest of Iraq, is under an unprecedented threat from the spillover of the Syria war.
The rise in terrorism is giving increased urgency to finding a political solution to the Syria conflict, including diplomacy with the Syrian government, to stem the surging jihadist threat.
The New York Times on Dec. 3 quoted former US diplomat Ryan Crocker as saying that in matters of counterterrorism and other issues, “We need to start talking to the Assad regime again.” Crocker added, “It will have to be done very, very quietly. But bad as [President Bashar al-] Assad is, he is not as bad as the jihadis who would take over in his absence."
