ISIS influence increase amid latest developments in the Middle East

Washington – North-Press Agency
Hadeel Oweiss

American writers shared photos of the Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani surrounded by American marines in Iraq in previous missions coordinated with the United States to combat ISIS. While Britain indicated that the beneficiary of the escalation in the Middle East is the Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS).

American writers who shared photos of Qasem Soleimani said that the photos had been taken in Iraq in the past years surrounded by U.S. Marines accompanied by the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), and another photo with Peshmerga forces allied with the United States in combating ISIS, which is a reminder for the American military coordination with the PMF and militias close to Iran with the American army in Iraq.

The American researcher Theodore Karasik told North-Press that Soleimani, who was not widely known in the United States, was suddenly listed by the Trump administration as another terrorist leader such as Osama bin Laden and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed by the United States, although the United States almost a year from now, was taking advantage of the forces trained and armed by Qasem Soleimani to fight ISIS, during the war of the Global Coalition against the terrorist group.

However, the foreign policy conducted by the U.S. President Donald Trump and the focus on seeking to change the behavior of the Iranian regime and reduce the influence of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, led Washington to target Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq, which is close to Qasem Soleimani, then killed the former commander of Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. He added: "The electoral interests in the United States charted a new path for the U.S. behavior in the Middle East, especially after targeting and killing ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, where Trump administration tries to portray itself as destroying the extremist and terrorist groups that Obama administration has been unable to destroy starting from the Islamic State to the militias associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, for political gains that will complicate the future of the U.S. influence in the region, without the killing of al-Baghdadi and Soleimani having a real impact on the end of the influence of the Iranian militias or ISIS activities.

Karasik warned that ISIS is benefiting from the changes taking place under President Trump administration in the region, where the influence of the terrorist group is escalating rather than diminishing, even if the Iraqi parliament has satisfied with a non-binding proposal asking the U.S. forces to leave Iraq, this is because countries including Iraq continue to fear the U.S. sanctions and economic pressures that America is applying on countries, and that would further hit the Iraqi economy and strengthen the Iraqi crisis that has sparked protests in Iraq over the past months, but this Iraqi reluctance to drive out the U.S. forces does not mean that the U.S. coordination with the Iraqi forces against any emerging threats from the Islamic State will be easy in the future.

Meanwhile, the British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a meeting with French and British diplomatic missions that the only beneficiary of the escalation in the Middle East would be ISIS.