By Vestnik Kavkaza
The bombing of the terrorists of Islamic State (IS) by the international coalition has destroye more than 6 thousand Islamists in Syria and Iraq since the beginning of the special operation, U.S. ambassador to Iraq Stuart Jones said. According to him, as a result of the bombings, the coalition has destroyed “more than half” of the IS leaders. However, experts believe that the coalition is working inefficiently. Alexander Ignatenko, the president of the Institute of Religion and Politics, a member of the Council for Cooperation with Religious Entities under the President of the RF, thinks that de facto the coalition doesn’t exist at all: “In due time, U.S. Secretary of the State Kerry stated that 41 states joined the coalition, but in fact the declared coalition doesn’t exist.”
It includes the U.S.A., the UK, Iraq, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, and the UAE. “However, there is a serious problem: those states which participate in the failed coalition either actively participated in establishing IS or were interested in the existence and victories of IS; and the situation of the coalition and its struggle against IS can be characterized as “bees against honey.”
Konstantin Sivkov, the president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, thinks that the sponsors of Islamic State are varied: “On the one hand these are monarchies of the Persian Gulf… At the same time, we should realize that the leadership of IS includes major powerful groups which are connected with the Turkish government and special services. The groups in their elites, which were connected with the U.S., didn’t disappear either, as IS was sponsored and supported by the Americans at its initial stage of development and formation when they were acting in Syria. IS has people who have nothing in common with Islam, but they have to stand for Islamist ideas today – these are representatives of the former Ba'ath party, representatives of the destroyed army of Saddam Hussein, generals, officers who work for IS. They have already solved the problem of expelling the Americans from Iraq; now they are getting rid of the puppet regime which dominates Iraq today, according to them. However, Iraq is not an American puppet anymore, and the current Iraqi authorities seriously support Iran rather than the U.S.”
Andrei Boklanov, the deputy chairman of the Association of Russian Diplomats, thinks that IS is indirectly relevant to Islam; in fact, it only hides its criminal ideas behind religion: “We should look attentively at the alliance which is being formed between dark forces in the Western countries, soldiers of fortune, and similar elements in Arab Muslim countries. A criminal alliance is hiding behind religion.”
