By Vestnik Kavkaza
In the nearest future, Russia will present a draft on the struggle against terrorism in Syria to the UN Security Council. Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov stated that the document will contain a call to unite efforts to resist the terrorist threat which comes from Syria where a lot of terrorist organizations operate, including Al Qaeda and other groups connected with it. “They present a real threat to territorial integrity of the country and the region in general. That is why the terrorist threat is as serious as humanitarian situation in Syria,” Gatilov said.
Russian experts support views of diplomats. Oleg Nechiporenko, Head Analyst at the World Anti-Criminal and Anti-Terrorism Forum, thinks that after September 11, 2001, huge promising force to oppose terrorism was established, but this powerful interstate system was to some extent more declared than acting. “This war got sluggish from the international community, while international terrorist activity does not decrease, and in some cases it even increased. In particular, on September 11, 2001, international terrorism stormed in and occupied an important place in the global information space. Before that, terrorism had sought all sorts of ways to draw attention to their activities, their appearances, media shares, but after entering this space, terrorism has taken a very strong position there,” Nechiporenko is sure.
According to him, international terrorism uses this space very effectively: “Both concerning the proliferation of some ideological programs, ideas, concepts, and so on, concerning recruiting and attracting new people into their ranks, and also in terms of logistics, financial support for its activities. All this greatly complicates counterterrorism operational resources.” Nechiporenko gives an example of putting a fatwa on how to act, how to hit the U.S. diplomats. “That is a specific instruction on operational activities for those who want to implement it. And they say: "If you failed, see these recommendations again to finish the job the next time you try".”
Alexander Ignatenko, president of the Institute of Religion and Politics, says that in Lebanon terrorist acts are committed by groups which until recently fought in Syria: “The attacks against the Shiites in Lebanon are by Jabhat Al-Nusra, a new organization that has been established just recently. What is important is that this name is used by al-Qaeda.” Ignatenko is sure that such organizations are supported, created, financed, armed and directed by Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia pays the Free Syrian army its full salaries, and a weekly allowance is paid to all personnel of the Syrian Free Army.
At the same time, according to the expert, to bribe officers and generals of the Syrian Arab army, i.e. the army of the regime, to force them to desert and go over to the opposition, Qatar has spent $15 billion. The numbers are, of course, unofficial.
“The Free Syrian Army, which at times acts as a moderate armed group, in large part consists of extremist and terrorist groups of the al-Qaeda type,” Ignatenko says. “The problem that arises in the world after the end of the Syrian crisis is not only the fact that the Mujahideens, or global jihadi fighters from different countries, who are fighting now in Syria, will go home. There will be another problem. This kind of war ends with creating a new front of the global jihad. And such a new front of the global jihad could be anywhere - in Central Asia and the Russian North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, and, in general, in various other places, including even, perhaps, the south of France. It will be very difficult to cope with all these processes. So now it is important not only to solve the Syrian crisis in the well-known manner, we are not talking about this now. What is essential now is to establish global international cooperation between different countries to fight against international terrorism.”
