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Quadriga - US-Arab War on IS - An Uneasy Alliance

September 25, 2014

The US has expanded its air offensive against 'Islamic State' to include targets in Syria. A group of Arab states has pledged to support Washington's operation. Meanwhile Turkey faces a new refugee crisis on its border, triggered by the rise of IS. Is this the beginning of the end for 'Islamic State', or the start of another long war against terrorists?

https://p.dw.com/p/1DLFM

Over 130,000 Syrian refugees flooded into Turkish refugee camps over the weekend to escape IS attack. The latest wave of refugees brings the total number of displaced persons in Turkey to nearly one million. The United Nations predicts hundreds of thousands more will cross the Syrian-Turkish border in the months to come.

Flüchtlinge Syrien Türkei Kurden Grenze zur Türkei
Image: Reuters/Stringer

US President, Barack Obama has forged an alliance with key regional leaders to break the IS advance. Washington has changed its military strategy since its invasion of Iraq in 2003. Now it wants broad regional backing before committing to more military action. But it remains unclear how far the US can rely on its regional partners. Qatar faces the allegation that IS gets a lot of its funding from wealthy Qatari donors. Saudi Arabia has long supported those who fought against Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria. Turkey, a key Nato ally, has not joined the alliance, but is no longer ruling out military action. Meanwhile, Iran also continues to watch IS with concern.

US Angriffe auf Ziele des Islamischen Staates bei Rakka 23.09.2014
Image: Reuters/U.S. Central Command
UN Sicherheitsrat 24.09.2014
Image: Reuters/Brendan McDermid

Can the US-Arab alliance stop the advance of the Islamic State and end the region's humanitarian crisis?

Let us know what you think: quadriga(at)dw.de

US-Arab War on IS - An Uneasy Alliance




Our guests:

16.05.2013 DW Quadriga Guenter Seufert

Günter Seufert- worked as a freelance author and journalist in Istanbul for several years, before joining the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin. He also worked as a researcher and lecturer at the University of Cyprus, the German Oriental Institute in Istanbul and at the University of Lausanne in France. He is specialized in Turkish domestic and foreign policies.

20.06.2013 DW TV Quadriga Zafer Senocak
Image: DW

Zafer Şenocakis a writer and essayist. He was born in Ankara, grew up in Istanbul and Munich, and has been living in Berlin since 1989. He studied German literature, politics and philosophy at university and has been publishing poetry, essays and prose in German since 1979. His writings have been translated into many languages. Şenocak has been a professor in the US at Boston and Berkeley and his thoughts on Islamic traditions and Turkish identity are regularly printed in German newspapers.

23.05.2013 DW Quadriga Martina Sabra

Martina Sabra - has studied Islam and Islamic societies, and has worked as a journalist for more than 20 years in the Middle East and North Africa (including in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria). She has written mainly on topics such as migration, democratic development and human rights.