“Cette fois, c’est le guerre (This time, it’s war),” said French President Francois Hollande after the Paris attacks, setting off ripples of alarm across the world. In the last few days, the international community has been trying to formulate a response to the killings of November 13. After the initial outpouring of grief comes the hardening of stances.
At the G20 summit in Turkey this week, all eyes are turned to the source of the terror, the Islamic State. The crackdown on terror has now gathered around two issues: retaliatory strikes on Syria and the flow of refugees escaping the horrors of the IS regime. Here are the responses of some key players in the Syrian crisis.
France: Shaken by the killings, Paris has promised a “pitiless” war on terror. France had been carrying out airstrikes in Syria since September. In the aftermath of the attack, French jets hit Raqqa, the so-called capital of the IS caliphate, and Hollande said the air offensive would be stepped up. He called for a global coalition to fight the IS and on Tuesday evening, made a formal request for assistance from the European Union.
Meanwhile, fear has gripped the homeland. The morning after the attacks, Hollande declared a state of emergency, enabling the police to carry out more than 150 raids across the country and make arrests. On Monday, as security forces fanned out in a massive manhunt for the surviving attackers, Hollande addressed a rare joint session of parliament. He proposed to amend the constitution to make it easier to strip dual nationals of their French citizenship if they were convicted of terror, and to bar them from entering the country if they presented a terror threat. Hollande also pledged to scale up defence and security spending.
Russia: Fear has travelled to Moscow too. The Kremlin is now certain that the Russian plane crash in Sinai on October 31, which killed 224 people, was an act of terror. The Moscow Times reported how bomb alerts over the past week have emptied out hotels, stations and shopping centres. However, no explosives have been found at these sites. After it emerged that the attackers had used an instant messaging service called Telegram, Moscow did what it does best: bring out the bans. The country’s Federal Security Service said it was being used for propaganda by the Islamic State. “I propose banning words,” responded Pavel Durov, creator of Telegram.
Russian air strikes in Syria, which started late September, have intensified since Saturday’s killings. But in the past, President Vladimir Putin, who has stood firmly by the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, has had to parry accusations that the Kremlin’s target was not the IS. The US State Department accused it of targeting the moderate opposition to the Assad regime instead. Putin must now play a delicate balancing act. Back in October, he had accused Washington, which supports the political opposition to Assad, of arming the IS. But at the G20 summit in Antalya, he seemed to have softened towards the West. Putin and United States President Barack Obama were spotted chatting across a coffee table on the sidelines of the summit. On Monday, Putin announced that he was ready to set aside his differences with the West and support a moderate opposition to Assad. It could be the beginning of a broader coalition against the IS.
United States: With the IS having promised a Paris-style attack on Washington, the White House is jittery. On Monday, US air strikes targeted the oil resources of the Islamic State but Obama has rejected the option of a ground invasion of Syria. He put up an emotional defence of US strategy in Syria, citing the mistakes of past wars and the pressures put on American soldiers fighting overseas.
But as the US heads towards elections, the war in Syria has become the subject of political wrangling, with Republicans demanding more aggressive military intervention to “eradicate” the IS. After it emerged that one of the attackers had entered Europe through Greece as a refugee, at least 22 Republican governors have closed their states to Syrians seeking asylum. The list includes Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and presidential Chris Christie of New Jersey. The opposition also wanted the federal government to block the resettlement of Syrian refugees. Republican presidential Jeb Bush and Texas senator Ted Cruz, however, decided to make a concession: only Christian refugees would be allowed in. Slamming the idea of a religion test for refugees, Obama used the G20 forum to lash out at the Republicans. “That’s shameful. That’s not American,” he said.
Germany: After Paris, the Angela Merkel administration could be jolted out of its non-interventionist stance on Syria. Germany has been training Kurdish fighters against the IS regime, but Merkel’s conservative party seems to be pushing for more direct involvement. On Saturday, Merkel promised France “all and any support”. While urging a unified stand against the IS, Merkel was non-committal about Germany’s stance. “We are not there yet. It is thus unclear what will be asked of us,” she said at Antalya.
Months ago, Germany was lauded for opening its doors to Syrian refugees, but the mood could be turning. On November 6, it announced it announced new curbs, saying all the Syrians flowing in would not be granted refugee status. At the G20 summit, European leaders said unchecked migrations had increased the terror threat. With Europe preparing to turn itself into a fortress once more, Germany’s generous open-door policy could be endangered.
Britain: Two years ago, British Prime Minister David Cameron lost a parliamentary vote to launch air strikes on Syria. After Friday’s attacks, he announced his decision to ramp up the country’s defence budget. He added 2 billion pounds to spending on special forces and 1,900 personnel to the intelligence services. On Tuesday evening he announced that “Britain should be doing more” against the IS in Syria. This time, he might have his way as a section of Labour MPs are softening to the idea of British airstrikes. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s opposition to military intervention in Syria has split the party ranks.
Turkey: At Antalya, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Putin held a tete-a-tete where they discussed the future of the Bashar al-Assad regime. It had none, they reportedly concluded.
Like Putin, Erdogan must walk a tightrope on Syria. At the G20 summit, he expressed his solidarity with Western powers. However, the Kurdish militants fighting against the IS and armed by the West are also traditional enemies of the Turkish state. In October, Erdogan blamed Syrian intelligence and Kurdish militia for suicide bombings in Ankara which had killed more than 100 people. Erdogan will now have to square his support for the West with his determination to crack down on Kurdish rebels.
Turkey also asserted that it had taken in around 2.5 million Syrian refugees since the start of the crisis.
Postscript: Delhi has stayed out of the Syrian war so far. Back in September, the home ministry claimed that fighting the IS would lead to sectarian conflict at home. But in the aftermath of Paris, Indian security agencies have flagged the danger of lone wolf attacks in the country. Intelligence agencies are also said to be tracking IS “sympathisers” in states like Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Maharashtra, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh. On Tuesday, the home ministry announced a tougher stance on IS sympathisers, saying cases would now be registered against them. It also said that though the IS had not established a base in India, it had succeeded in “radicalising some youth”.