February 4, 2014 | Quote
U.S. Officials Said Tuesday that an Interim Deal with Iran that Promises to Curb Its Nuclear Program
Al Qaida’s central command publicly has disowned its Iraqi affiliate over that group’s brutal activities in Syria in an unprecedented break that analysts say may weaken the Syrian insurgency and impact al Qaida’s operations across the Middle East.
In a statement posted on jihadist forums late Sunday, al Qaida leader Ayman al Zawahiri and other commanders formally declared the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, not an al Qaida affiliate over its defiance of an order last year to limit its operations to Iraq and to leave operations in Syria to the official al Qaida affiliate there, the Nusra Front.
“ISIS is not a branch of al Qaida and we have no organizational relationship with it,” Zawahiri’s statement said. As a result, it added, al Qaida is no longer responsible for the “actions and behaviors” of ISIS, which has been fighting a bloody campaign against other rebel groups in Syria while imposing strict Islamic law on the parts of Syria it controls, often executing people it finds to be insufficiently pious.
Experts on al Qaida offered a variety of interpretations on the importance of Zawahiri’s statement. Some said it was likely to be closely watched by al Qaida affiliates in other parts of the world; if ISIS survives the expulsion and continues to hold onto its positions inside Syria, it likely will mean that central al Qaida’s ability to command their operations will have collapsed.
“If ISIS succeeds without being part of al Qaida, it could create a competing center of jihadist power,” said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow who studies al Qaida for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “It’s possible that it will dim al Qaida’s brand as well as al Qaida’s fundraising.”