Newsletter 2014/06/16 – Marching Toward Baghdad
BAGHDAD/DAMASCUS/BERLIN (Own report) – The advance of the “Islamic
State in Iraq and the Levant” ISIL – also known as the Islamic State
in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIL) – a product of the Syrian war, which Berlin
has been energetically spurring on, is shaking up the Middle East.
ISIL’s current strength is the result of the radicalization that has
taken place in the course of the insurgency against President Bashar
al Assad’s government in Syria, of which observers had been warning
since early in the conflict. However, these warnings had fallen on
deaf ears in the German government, which had continued to strengthen
the insurgents. The ISIL has also benefitted from weapons deliveries
and other support provided by Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf
dictatorship that is one of Berlin’s most important partners in the
Syrian war. The German political establishment also maintains close
contact to a Saudi prince, who, during the 1980s, while serving as
head of the intelligence services of his country, had furnished arms
to the Mujahidin in Afghanistan, including Osama bin Laden, and who,
still today, wields considerable political influence. Berlin has never
insisted that the Saudis cease their support for ISIL. That Salafist
militia has now taken control of wide areas of Iraq and has begun to
attack Lebanon. ISIL activists are also active in Europe. One of them
is being accused of having committed the quadruple murder in the
Jewish Museum in Brussels.