A total military victory for Bashar al-Assad rather than a negotiated peace deal will leave Syria and Europe exposed to resurgent Sunni terrorism, as in Iraq, the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has warned. “You will create a space in which, within three months, there will be more people joining Islamic State. “So the extent that Russia and the US have a common approach on how to accelerate the fight against Islamic State and al-Nusra is welcome. To defeat Islamic State, you have to have a political approach that also includes those that feel disenfranchised, the Sunnis. Unless you address the disenfranchisement of Sunni tribes, you will have an open space for people like the Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Source: The Guardian November 15, 2016 13:18 UTC