US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke about the results of the London negotiations with members of the international coalition against the IS, that 50% of the terrorist group Islamic State has been destroyed.
He also said that the Iraqi army was able to recapture a territory of 700 square kilometers. During the fighting nearly 200 oil and gas facilities that IS were using have been eliminated from their capacity to sell and get revenue from them.
Meanwhile, the experts expressed doubt that, in spite of the destruction of half of the Islamic State rebels, this results in talking about some advantage in the fight against the terrorist organization.
The president of the Institute of Religion and Politics, a Member of the Council for Cooperation with Religious Associations under the President of the RF, the Director of Institute ofreligion and politics, Alexander Ignatenko stressed that the opposition to Islamic state in its current form will not work, because the international coalition is not consistent.
"It was announced about the formation of a major military organization, which, in fact, still does not exist. It is worth mentioning another factor: the states participating in the coalition, or participating in the creation of IS, or benefiting from the existence of IS," he said.
The expert mentioned Qatar as an example. "Qatar was among those who met in London yesterday, but Qatar was involved directly in the creation of the organization, which it called "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant". The list of countries that have somehow influenced the creation of any radical religious organizations can last for a long time," Ignatenko said.
According to the director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Central Asia, Semyon Bagdasarov, the numbers that Kerry declared are not revealing.
"The fact that IS has the process of creating a standing army, without relying on volunteers, that is, an army which can be quickly mobilized. Now they have started to get rid of the so-called volunteers from other countries. They say that can mobilize 200 thousand people," the expert said.
Bagdasarov stressed that we need the coalition's coordinated interaction with fighting on the ground to defeat a full IS army.
"I'm talking about the Kurds, who show the best possible training, but they are not in the best relations with other nations. However, I believe that an invasion of Saudi Arabia by Islamic State won't work in the current situation. Actually, IS now has two strategic objectives: access to the Mediterranean Sea and Baghdad, which is also unlikely, despite the assistance from the outside. The only countries where they can break into are Jordan and Lebanon," he said.
The President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, Konstantin Sivkov, added that Islamic State is stable even with such losses, since the origins of supporting its existence are diverse.
"There are the Gulf countries wishing to create a caliphate, and people who are not related to Islam, who just want to liberate Iraq from the US and the "puppet regime". There are many groups in the political mood of the IS, but there is a common ideological influence, which directs Islamic State. The presence of the ideological foundations led to the success that the IS has made," Sivkov pointed out.
According to Director of Center for the Study of the Middle East and Central Asia Semen Bagdasarov, numbers that Kerry declared are not revealing. "The fact that the IS has the process of creating a standing army, without relying on volunteers, that is, the army, which can be quickly mobilized. Now they have started to get rid of the so-called volunteers from other countries. They say that can mobilize 200 thousand people," the expert said.Bagdasarov stressed that we need coalition's coordinated interaction with the fighting on the ground to defeat a full IS army. "I say about Kurds, which show the best possible training, but they are not in the best relations with other nations. However, I believe that invasion in Saudi Arabia from the Islamic state won't work in the current situation. Actually, the IS has now two strategic objectives: access to the Mediterranean sea and Baghdad, which is also unlikely, despite the assistance from the outside. The only countries where they can break are Jordan and Lebanon," he said.The President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, Konstantin Sivkov added that Islamic state is stable even with such losses, since the origins of supporting its existence are diverse. "There are the Gulf countries wishing to create a caliphate, and people who are not related to Islam, who just want to liberate Iraq from the US and the "puppet regime". There are many groups in the political mood of the IS, but there is a common ideological influence, which directs Islamic state. The presence of the ideological foundations led to the success that the IS has made," Sivkov drew attention.
