00:00 Antony Blinken has already met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the country's
00:04 foreign minister.
00:05 Today, he's attending a meeting focused on fighting terrorism.
00:09 A coalition of more than 80 countries is addressing the activities of the Islamic State group
00:14 outside of the Middle East.
00:16 And for more on this, we're joined by France 24's Wassim Nasser.
00:19 Wassim, tell us about the current state of the Islamic State group in the world.
00:24 Well, actually, the group is active worldwide today.
00:27 But to start, we have to maybe talk a little bit about Saudi Arabia.
00:30 Saudi Arabia is really concerned by this phenomenon, since the last attack that occurred in Saudi
00:35 Arabia, terrorist attacks, was done by the Islamic State on the 11th of November 2020,
00:40 targeting European diplomats who were commemorating the 11th of November, the end of World War
00:46 I.
00:47 And just in August 2022, a Saudi national activated his explosive vest in order to not
00:56 to get arrested by Saudi authorities.
01:00 And on the 30th of June 2022, the Islamic State issued a long article attacking Saudi
01:05 Arabia and the governing family in Saudi Arabia.
01:08 So Saudi Arabia is in the heart of this coalition and of this fight against the Islamic State.
01:14 And we have a map here where we see all the countries where the Islamic State is present
01:18 as an insurgency.
01:20 Not all the countries where the Islamic State was active, meaning conducting terrorist attacks
01:25 like it happened in Austria a few years back here in Europe.
01:29 It was the last claimed attack in Europe.
01:31 And we see that the most concerned continent is the African continent, meaning the Islamic
01:37 State is present in the Sahara region, the border region between Mali, Niger, Burkina
01:41 Faso, active on the Lake Chad area between Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad.
01:49 And of course, Iraq and Syria, the group is still active.
01:52 One of the latest attacks in Iraq occurred on the Saudi border next to the Arar Passage.
01:58 And one of the latest attacks in Syria, for example, happened on the 10th of May a few
02:02 weeks back.
02:03 It was in Damascus against a police station.
02:06 Knowing that the group is still active in the Badia region and also west of the Euphrates
02:12 by conducting small attacks against specific local targets.
02:18 And the group is also active all the way to the Philippines and going through Afghanistan,
02:22 Pakistan and Indian Kashmir.
02:24 And the war with the Taliban in Afghanistan is very hard and very bloody since the takeover
02:31 of the Taliban of the country.
02:33 But one more time, the most important areas of activity are still in Africa, meaning the
02:38 Sahara region and Lake Chad.
02:40 What about Al-Qaeda?
02:41 What's its current status?
02:42 Al-Qaeda is still present worldwide, but with less with the lesser footprint, meaning the
02:49 only sustainable areas where Al-Qaeda is still present are in Africa, too.
02:53 And we have a map.
02:54 It's Somalia, of course, with the Shabab, but also the Sahara region that we just talked
02:58 about.
02:59 So the yellow dots are the areas of presence of Al-Qaeda in Mali, in Niger, Burkina Faso,
03:04 Togo and Benin.
03:06 The green dots are the areas of presence of the Islamic State.
03:10 And we see that in between the areas with the with the white dots are the areas of fighting
03:16 between the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, because the two groups are waging a worldwide war
03:22 and especially on the African continent, meaning lots of casualties in their warring effort
03:28 against each other.
03:30 But today, either for Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State, the epicenter of jihadi activity is
03:35 still in Africa.
03:36 Tell us more about the Idlib jihadists in Syria.
03:39 That's become a real hotbed.
03:41 It is a hotbed because it is the area where the Islamic State witnessed the most, its
03:47 most powerful time lapse between 2014 and 2015.
03:52 And also Al-Qaeda knew its most strong, the strongest affiliate it had with the Nusra
03:57 front.
03:58 And I was in Idlib a month ago.
04:00 And this is the map of Idlib.
04:01 This is the area that I got to visit in Idlib.
04:05 So in this area, we have a group called Ha'at Tahrir al-Sham, which is headed by the former
04:11 envoy of the Islamic State to Syria, Mohammed Joulani, and former head of Al-Qaeda in Syria,
04:17 Mohammed Joulani, which I met.
04:19 And they are like drawing a third path, if I may speak so, say so, because they abandoned
04:25 international jihad.
04:26 They abandoned international terrorism.
04:29 And they are focusing on fighting the Syrian regime, Iran and the Russians that are present
04:34 in Syria.
04:35 So it is the first time, it's the first where we have a jihadi group saying that taking
04:39 the path of international jihad was a mistake.
04:42 And so they are trying to get more local and to get, of course, international recognition
04:47 being out of this terrorism activity.
04:51 And this is the footage of Idlib, which I visited a month ago.
04:56 And I got to meet an Iraqi national, Abu Maria Qahtani, who's heading the fight of Ha'at
05:02 al-Sham against the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda.
05:06 And he said very clearly that they will fight any attempts to commit attacks in the West
05:11 from Idlib, of course, and that they abandoned international jihad to focus on their jihad
05:17 against one more time the Syrian regime, Iranians and the Russians.
05:21 So this is something new.
05:22 This is something that never happened before, meaning just like prominent leaders being
05:27 in the ranks of the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda denying this form of jihad.
05:32 It is maybe an opportunity because Zawahiri, the head of Al-Qaeda, was killed by the Americans
05:37 in Kabul a few months back.
05:42 And maybe it is something to build upon in order to pacify some areas, and especially
05:47 this area of Idlib where we have four and a half million inhabitants there with one
05:52 million and a half displaced people.
05:54 Okay.
05:55 We'll have to leave it there.
05:56 Waseem Nasser, thanks so much.
05:57 Some really important context.
05:59 Waseem Nasser, France24's expert on jihadist movements.
06:03 Thanks so much.
