Ghalioun: IS' expansion reflects collapse of entire regional system

The former leader of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) Burhan Ghalioun said the Islamic State (IS)’s expansion is a clear indication of the collapse of the entire regional system.

Ghalioun’s remarks came during a statement made to the Anadolu news agency on the sidelines of his participation in the third annual conference on Democratic Governance: Sectarianism and the Manufacturing of Minorities in the Greater Arab Mashreq which is organised by the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies in ​ Jordan.

Ghalioun attributed the Islamic State’s expansion to “the Iranian expansion policy paralleled with the Arab states’ failure to achieve a civil state and their association to corrupt authoritarian regimes that think only of their own interests.”

“IS benefited from the power vacuum in the region, and used some rebel movements to become a force to be reckoned with,” he said, adding that “IS has no clear policy but to seek revenge for itself from the West and the United States primarily, while it is based on a set of beliefs that are not compatible with any religion, doctrine or the spirit of humanity.”

Ghalioun pointed out that “IS is not part of the sectarian conflict associated with the Iranian policy, which is used by some groups to put pressure on the surrounding Arab countries, especially the Gulf states, as well as Western countries, in order to remove the sanctions imposed on Iran.”

The conference, which began on Saturday, is scheduled to conclude this afternoon with a roundtable discussion on “Arabism, State and Patriotism in Confrontation with a Shredded Social Fabric, Sectarian Politics, and the Inflation of Sectarian Identities into National Groups”.

IS, formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), controls large areas of Iraq and Syria, and announced the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate over the areas it controls.

The United States is working to mobilise more than 30 Western and regional countries to form an alliance to counter the Islamic State’s threat.

A conference to discuss the security of Iraq and IS’s threat is scheduled to start today in France.