International efforts against Al-Qaeda key to Syria political solution
A UN counterterrorism committee can do even more to coordinate a more effective response to al-Qaeda in Syria and eventually a political resolution of the conflict.
The Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra recently announced it would follow orders from al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri and discontinue attacks against rival group, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). In its May 4 announcement, Jabhat al-Nusra stated, "We announce our acceptance of the orders of Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahri to stop any attacks against ISIS while ensuring they do not attack Muslims."
This statement followed a truce between the two sides, both affiliated with al-Qaeda, after days of fighting in the eastern Syrian province of Deir ez-Zour that borders Iraq, which resulted in the deaths of 60 rebels and the displacement of thousands of civilians according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring organization.
The two groups have been at war for months over ideological and other differences. Though this overture by Zawahri and Jabhat al-Nusra was reportedly rejected by ISIS, these developments underscore the subservience of Jabhat al-Nusra to al-Qaeda's central command and Zawahri, and the weight and authority that al-Qaeda terrorist groups have in the current conflict in Syria. Though reports of battlefield conditions vary and at times conflict, it is generally understood that these terrorist organizations have the financial and logistical support needed to sustain their military efforts both against the government as well as other rival militants for the foreseeable future.
Other reports have examined the financing of these extremist organizations. Radical groups like ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra have long relied on the "charitable giving" of a small community of supporters who see the Syrian crisis as part of a larger ideological conflict.
