The Assad regime’s “Terrorism Financing Commission” recently accused Turkey’s president, Lebanon’s prime minister, and a host of other politicians, judges, academics, and ordinary citizens of supporting jihadism. The laughable charges better describe Assad’s own record, writes James Snell.
Syria’s most powerful jihadists have neither agreed to nor impeded the creation by Turkey and Russia of an “extremist”-free buffer zone in Idlib Province. For now, all actors seem content to leave the matter at that.
Though the pro-regime axis has its own reasons for wanting to avoid an Idlib offensive, there is ultimately no reason to think last week's cessation of hostilities has any more chance of holding than its predecessors, argues James Snell.
Three former ISIS fighters now undergoing “anti-extremism” courses at a center north of Aleppo tell our reporter the Assad regime’s brutality and slick video propaganda were among the top reasons they joined the world’s most reviled jihadist organization.
While Iran and its regional proxies pose today as moderates combating “terrorism,” a new book shines further light on the role of state actors—Tehran and Pakistan above all—in facilitating al-Qaeda’s operations, from 9/11 up to the present day.
