ISIS the Bizarre

The Islamic State of Iraq and Sham is a sophisticated organization and has its own vision that she is pursuing in the Levant. But the current situation in the region is quite fluid and complex, and this creates ample opportunities for all different sorts of bizarre transitional alliances, no matter how they are negotiated, to emerge, and for strange spats of coordination, even with an avowed enemy, to take place, albeit on a provisional basis.

These things can be quite confusing for many observers, who, in their quest to make sense of things, opt for the more straightforward theories such as the one claiming that the intelligence services in Syria and Iran are, in fact, the parties responsible for establishing and managing ISIS. To make things more complicated, it is quite possible, if not probable, that Syria and Iranian intelligence services are indeed in control of certain units affiliated with ISIS out there, and are in touch with certain of her leaders. Such is the nature of the game at this stage, and things are bound to get even more complicated.

But on occasions, things do become clearer. Indeed, the myth about ISIS being completely run by Iranian and Syrian intelligence branches should now be put to rest, as developments in Iraq have finally forced the hand of the Assad regime to act. Yesterday, the Assad regime finally began bombing positions manned by ISIS units inside Syria. As we said, bizarre alliances and coordination efforts do emerge in scenes as fluid and violent as the one in Syria, but they are often transient, and a return to a state of confrontation is inevitable. But once ISIS has been sufficiently weakened in Syria, a return of previous coordination in the two camps fight against moderate rebels might still be in the offing. For the goal of squeezing the moderates out of the fight is something the two sides, Assad and ISIS, can always agree on.