The Vice President of Afghanistan, Abdul Rashid Dostum, has urged Russia to provide the Afghan Special Services with weapons, including aircraft, for the struggle against the terrorists of the so-called Islamic State terrorist organization. According to him, IS is a threat not only to Afghanistan, but also to the whole region – the group’s plans touch on the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia.
Vladimir Yevseyev, the head of the Caucasus Department of the CIS Institute, believes that Central Asia, the South Caucasus and Russia are not the main direction of the IS movement. “Their main movement can be made towards Saudi Arabia. This is a varnished piece of cake, which they, of course, will be happy to swallow. And proof of this is the attacks that took place in Saudi Arabia. If Russia manages to turn the tide against Saudi Arabia, which now in fact is the main sponsor of the terrorists, the situation could change radically.”
Russia plans to create a united front against the Islamists, which should engage the Syrian national army, various structures that are at war with the Islamists, including the Kurds, and other militias. In this case, victory would have been possible. However, in such a situation, in the coming years Islamic State will exist. And the US will have the possibility of interfering in the affairs of foreign states under the guise of fighting IS, as they have successfully done before, for example, in Syria, Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere. This is a very convenient excuse to interfere in the affairs of other states.”
According to Yevseyev, IS could be prevented by a policy change in Turkey, but Turkey under the guise of combating IS is fighting the PKK: “In fact, it is fighting the Kurds, who are fighting IS. The U.S. is not so much interested in the fight against Islamic State as it is interested in keeping the balance of power. Other countries are involved in this war, which is allegedly conducted by the U.S. against ISIS. Those countries initially contributed to the creation of IS – Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. And these same states actually contribute to the fact that IS still exists, because if it is deprived of financial support through the territory of Turkey, it could be defeated. But while some representatives of Turkey think about the possibility of creating a kind of a buffer zone, when the U.S. simulate fighting with IS, when militants are trained in Jordan, who are participating in war with the Syrian National Army instead of fighting ISIS. Under these conditions it is difficult to talk about the possibility of a victory over ISIS.”
At the same time, Yevseyev notes that the strengthening of Russian-Egyptian relations plays a positive role in improving the situation in Syria. “It was very painful to know that the center of Damascus was subject to mortar fire. And all this information on the latest destruction of monuments on the territory of Syria is awful. There are no conditions for victory over IS at the moment.”
