In comments to French television, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned that his government is concerned by the Syrian military’s offensive in Idlib Province, fearing it would scatter foreign militants across the world, potentially causing serious security concerns for the West.
Le Drian says France believes there are “dozens of French fighters” aligned with al-Qaeda and other factions in Idlib. The assumption is that when the offensive begins, many will flee abroad, potentially returning to France and other EU countries.
This is a familiar concern for the West, as France and other nations expressed similar concerns during the early anti-ISIS offensive, with huge numbers of Western recruits in ISIS. Other groups don’t have near the size of foreign fighters, but there are some.
It is interesting that French officials are using this to argue against the offensive against al-Qaeda-dominated Idlib, when there was little real push against the US-backed offensive against ISIS elsewhere in Syria, even though ISIS had a much larger number of such fighters to be scattered.
Paris should have thought of this scattering “danger” before they got involved with the hairbrained attempted putsch on Assad..
All we can do is HOPE all of Hillary”s head chopper “rebels” end up in Paris & environs as just desert for France”s colonial mischief. All the N.Africans displaced by French colonial violence living in France would probably be able to learn a few nifty tricks & skills from those ISIS rebels.. Thanks a lot France…!!!!
The French government should have considered such things when they supported US policy in the Middle East. Same goes for Libya.
Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.
Can’t stop laughing!!! French have been supporting or else encouraging the terrorists now they are worried they may come to visit.
The FUKUS governments should repatriate their jihadists back to Paris, London and Washington. Problem solved.
thats why they took over N. Syria to provide a home for Al Qaeda so they won’t go home.
Your chickens come home to roost, France. Give them asylum and social benefits so they can ram down tourists on the French Riviera!
But why is it that only Syrian / Russian offensives do this, what about the great victories at Mosul or Raqqa where we actually let ISIS fighters relocate?
I didn’t see the French falling down on their swords preventing those campaigns.
the french and the british are by far the biggest poodles on the US in the world now
“The assumption is that when the offensive begins, many will flee abroad, potentially returning to France and other EU countries.”
that’s actually a pretty good assumption and concern. Then perhaps they shouldn’t have participated in the incredible build up of terrorists and ‘rebels’ in Syria in the first place (well over 100,000 by many estimates), nor supported the US-Saudi-Turkish driven war in the first place!
and perhaps the war-mongering French should consider getting on good terms with the Syrian government as soon as possible so that the syrian intelligence services can share any info they have on foreign jihadists with European intelligence. duh
Remember the Sarko(na)z(i) regime in 2005 or 6 sent envoys to America to apologise for not joining in the invasion of Iraq, apart from leading the aggression against Libya.
I have no pity for France. They deserve what they get.
So what, Syria should keep them, allow them to do their worst with Western backing, money, and arms? This is offensive to good sense.
Indeed, the premise is that these jihadists are such a terrible threat, that Iran and Russia should not attack them. And the concern is real, because the downward progression has happened over and over: The CIA and other agencies of colonial powers find the most violent extremists to do their bidding, arm and finance them, and when the jihadists really have their backs against a wall, our govt says NOT MY PROBLEM. Thus the jihadists we create might well turn to bite the hand that has been feeding them.
Funny how the French government didn’t think about that before committing large sums of money, resources and diplomacy behind these same terrorists.
So the Syrian government retaking its own territory is bad because it’ll send home the terrorists who were sent to Syria by this same France and other Western imperialist countries. Also these terrorists, let’s remember, don’t actually exist, which is why the Syrian government shouldn’t retake its own territory.
Good logic, worthy of France, indeed.
Kill all the terrorists and u wont have that problem. Idlib is surrounded. End of story.
They scatter back to the countries of origin as all mercenaries do.
Someone speaking the truth in the West???? THAT is what worries all the participant governments, since they do not want the returning fighters back home sowing discord and violence.
Russia’s suggestion of trying to make Syria safe (if destroyed) so that Syrians can return would help countries like Germany to reduce the unwanted population of Syrians there. Are these suggestions even being heard, or is the Cold War hardline still present?