International Crisis Group

In Syria, the Enemy of an Enemy is Still an Enemy | Colum Lynch

For U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura, the path to a Syrian peace deal ran straight through the Islamic State, or Daesh, the Islamist extremist group seeking to form a caliphate in the heart of the Middle East.

Speaking in a closed-door U.N. Security Council meeting last October, the Swedish-Italian diplomat said the rise of the extremist movement — known for sexually enslaving women and beheading Western journalists and aid workers — supplied just the shock needed to focus the attention of the United States and other key powers on Syria. He said it would also threaten the interests of the warring parties inside Syria enough to scare them into possibly embracing peace.

“It took abhorrent acts and images of terror to return the limelight on Syria,” de Mistura told the council, according to a confidential copy of his statement, which was obtained by Foreign Policy. “We need to take advantage of this.”

FULL ARTICLE (via Foreign Policy)

Photo: UN Photo/Eric Kanalstein