- Airstrikes in Syria and Iraq are just the start Associated Press
- Syrian opposition welcomes Obama's announcement Associated Press
- Al-Qaida leader warns of revenge for airstrikes Associated Press
- Assad backs all efforts to fight terrorism Associated Press
- Islamic State offensive poses problems for Turkey Associated Press
Abu Qatada and al-Maqdisi have
denounced some of the group's practices as un-Islamic — comments some
analysts say have turned the preachers into assets in Jordan's campaign
to contain the Islamic State, which is believed to have attracted
thousands of followers in the country. Authorities say their release
from prison — al-Maqdisi in June and Abu Qatada after an acquittal last
week — had nothing to do with politics.
But
the clerics' outspokenness points to ways the U.S.-led fight against
the group is upending old assumptions in the Middle East. At the core of
issue: the Islamic State group is viewed by some regional players as an
existential threat, creating an unlikely mix of allies and reshaping
regional priorities.
Longtime foes such as the United
States and Iran now find themselves fighting a common enemy, as do
Iraq's Arabs and Kurds — who rarely agree on much. Squabbling Arab
states, such as Qatar and its Gulf neighbors, have at least temporarily
put aside their differences in the fight against the militants.
One-time
rivals "view the Islamic State through a similar lens, that it
represents a threat to their national security interests," said Fawaz
Gerges, a London-based expert on Islamic movements.
"This tells you the extent to which the Islamic State has really reconfigured regional security and global security," he added.
In this Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014 photo, radical al-Qaida-linked preacher Abu Qatada, left, receives …
The coalition has quickly grown since the U.S. first launched
airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq on Aug. 8, followed by
bombardments in Syria that began Sept. 21.
Saudi
Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Jordan have participated
in attacks in Syria, while Qatar hosts an air base used by the
coalition. France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and Britain are
among European countries contributing to U.S. efforts to hit the Islamic
State group in Iraq.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates, Bahrain and Jordan have participated in attacks in Syria,
while Qatar hosts an air base used by the coalition. France, the
Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and Britain are among European countries
contributing to U.S. efforts to hit the Islamic State group in Iraq.
The
shakeup of alliances is perhaps most dramatic in Syria, ravaged by a
civil war between President Bashar Assad's troops and Sunni Muslim-led
rebels, including Islamic State fighters and al-Qaida's local branch,
the al-Nusra front.
A year
ago, the Obama administration appeared on the verge of striking
government targets in Syria after blaming Assad for a deadly chemical
weapons attack on rebel-held areas outside Damascus. Now Assad stands to
benefit from U.S.-led airstrikes that are hitting some of his most
ruthless enemies while, for now, staying clear of his fighters.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar, among
the most active supporters of the armed opposition seeking to topple
Assad, are now part of the coalition that appears to be helping him
militarily, even if unintentionally. How long they are willing to do so
is unclear.
"The coalition is
being held together by American resolve, determination and leadership.
But we shouldn't take it for granted," said Salman Shaikh, director of
the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar.
In this Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014 photo, radical al-Qaida-linked preacher Abu Qatada, center, listen …
Qatar's participation in
the coalition is significant. It has been under mounting political
pressure over its backing of Islamist groups such as the Muslim
Brotherhood, its ties with Hamas, which fought a 50-day war with Israel
this summer, and for not doing more to stamp out private funding for
extremist groups.
It now finds itself allied with
three Gulf neighbors who pulled their ambassadors from the country
earlier this year to protest Qatar's perceived regional meddling and
support for Islamists. While the diplomats haven't been formally
reinstated, it appears the Islamic State threat is now a more pressing
concern.
"This is helping to
push the GCC (alliance of six Gulf states) together against the Sunni
extremists in Syria," said Theodore Karasik, an analyst at the
Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis.
Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani predicted a long fight against the Islamic State militants.
"They
have been trying to infiltrate into our borders, and therefore the
threat is there," he said. "We will continue until we achieve our
objective of degrading and finishing the terrorist organization."
The new counterterrorism fight
isn't prompting the Obama administration to ease efforts against other
long-term threats to the United States. Washington is still pushing for a
nuclear deal with Iran and targeting the financing of Hezbollah and
Hamas.
In this Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014 photo, radical al-Qaida-linked preacher Abu Qatada, center right, …
But shifting the priority to destroying the Islamic State group
is creating new opportunities for indirect collaboration, even with
sworn enemies.
U.S. and Iranian officials have held discussions on counteracting the Sunni extremists, although they deny direct cooperation.
In a sign of the overlap of
Iranian and U.S. interests, Iran last week said one of the Islamic
Republic's most senior generals and 70 Iranian soldiers helped Kurdish
fighters defend Irbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region in
northern Iraq that has been a focus of the American military. The city
is home to a U.S. consulate and offices of numerous Western companies,
and the approach of Islamic State militants to its outskirts prompted
American airstrikes in August.
Lebanon's
powerful, Iranian-backed Shiite Hezbollah militia has used the threat
posed by the Islamic State to justify fighting in Syria, alongside
Assad's forces. After sending fighters to Syria last year, Hezbollah had
faced mounting criticism at home that it was dragging the country into
the civil war there.
Hezbollah
leader Hassan Nasrallah now argues that Hezbollah's actions have
prevented Islamic State militants from overrunning Lebanon.
The new regional climate also
helped refocus Egypt's relations with the West on the issue of
terrorism, a conversation President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi appears more
comfortable with than Washington's concerns about human rights
violations resulting from his domestic crackdown on the Muslim
Brotherhood.
El-Sissi deposed
an elected president from the Brotherhood last year and has tried to
portray his move against the group as a model for fighting terrorism.
Washington remains critical of Cairo, but observers believe the ties
between the two are improving.
Some in the Arab coalition say they are engaged in an existential battle.
"What
we are fighting is not just a terrorist organization, but the
embodiment of a malicious ideology that must be defeated
intellectually," the vice president and prime minister of the Emirates,
Dubai ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, wrote in an opinion
piece Sunday.
"I consider this ideology to be the greatest danger that the world will face in the next decade," he said.
___
Schreck
reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers
Bassem Mroue and Diaa Hadid in Beirut, Bradley S. Klapper in Washington
and Maggie Michael in Cairo contributed to this report.
(A gaunt, sickly-looking Barack Obama addressing the Congressional Black Caucus this weekend.) 
