Patraeus: Support Al Qaeda to Defeat ISIS

In warning the Obama administration against warming ties with Iran as a way to defeat ISIS, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took issue with what he saw as an emerging policy based off of the adage “my enemy’s enemy is my friend.”

 

“Iran is the Islamic Republic, and ISIS calls itself the Islamic State,” the Prime Minister said in March of this year. “In this case, the enemy of my enemy is not my friend, but my enemy.”

 

But that strategy could go arguably a step further, if former CIA Director David Petraeus has his way.

 

According to the Daily Beast, the former commander of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan has been lobbying White House officials to embrace “moderate” elements of another major US foe: Al Qaeda.

 

ISIS famously broke of from Al Qaeda in 2014, after months of discord between ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri. The rival jihadi groups have since engaged in bloody fighting in Syria, where Al Qaeda’s Syrian branch, Al Nusra Front, has emerged as one of the most prominent rebel forces in the war against the Assad regime.

 

That animosity reached fever pitch recently, when one of ISIS’s official affiliates released a series of “Wanted Dead” posters offering rewards for killing several senior Al Qaeda leaders – including Zawahiri.

 

Patraeus is reportedly urging officials to reach out to elements within Nusra who are more “moderate” and help them defeat ISIS. In doing so he seems to be drawing a distinction between elements with the more locally-focused goal of overthrowing the Assad regime, and those looking to establish a base from which to attack the west, including the United States.

 

Read More: Patraeus: Support Al Qaeda to Defeat ISIS – US & Canada – News – Arutz Sheva