Refugees

Jiglebellsfrocks
The translation of Al Qaeda is 'the Base' it appears there is no real organisation called Al Qaeda just a number of jihadist sects aligning to the same principals, so yes Al Qaeda remains, but because it is a fragmented conglomerate, ISIS has come through due to the fact that it is more organised.
This is the problem when people say we must talk. Who do we talk to?
Also, there is little or no reasoning with people with such strongly ingrained beliefs.

Sorry again Jinglebellsfrocks, you can research this quite easily on the Internet.

Great news everyone -Saudi Arabia have kindly offered to fund 5 new mosques in Germany. So kind of them!

Maybe we need to talk with the present regime, minus Assad. (I know that won't help defeat IS)

I don't honestly mind who brokers any kind of peace but that's what's needed

By the sounds of it, from what Joelsnan says, it is much more far-reaching than a conflict in the Middle East, which is what I have heard before.
I'm not sure that I think the religious dimension is secondary to the economic control - I would think that economic control is a means to an end - religious control.

Sorry, Iam64 I meant to add that yes, because without it I fear for the future and my grandchildren.

If Assad went, perhaps the West could talk with the present Syrian government and persuade them to allow some of the rebels' demands. Then perhaps the West could help them to defeat IS.

Assad needs to be persuaded to step down.

That government must hate IS. Surely they can't be happy seeing Syria's history destroyed by them.

I don't honestly mind who brokers any kind of peace but that's what's needed

Not being facetious at all djen when I say that Jeremy Corbyn and Tony Blair could be part of a delegation to try to broker peace.

What's the use of an ex-Middle East Peace Envoy if he has no expertise in brokering peace?

Think what you like about Assad (and I have no words I could use on here to describe him) BUT without him, heaven help us all.

No rq! Assad needs to go. There are most likely more moderate people in that government.

Why do you think the West needs Assad?

this seems like a big mistake

Because he is keeping the rebels in check (or trying to)

Better the devil you know?

Whenever an evil dictator is removed all the nasty factions that have been kept under rear their ugly heads.

The original anti-government rebels weren't/aren't devils. They had a just cause.

The "nasty factions" are alredy far on in rearing their ugly heads.

They need a decent Syrian government in power. And they need help from the West.

The Assad regime was/is composed of mainly Minority Shiite sects who have no allegiance to ISIS or Al Qaeda who derive from Sunni Muslims.
Although the conflict started as an internal issue, almost from the outset the Syrians realised that the problem was being stoked by infiltrators, most Syrians I knew wished that the whole thing had never started as they quickly lost much of their country to foreign Sunni Muslim fanatics. Assad did say this almost at the outset and this is why I think the overthrow of Assad in the early stages of this conflict would have only speeded the advance of ISIS. It is sad that so many innocent lives are being lost or maimed.
There are other very destructive conflicts happening within the world, but I suppose their impact on the world has less potential impact than this.

jingle I don't think Assad is in the same realm as ISIS. As the other seemingly very knowledgeable poster said a while back, in peace time Syria under Assad was quite a cultured place where women had many more rights than in places like Saudi. It is a civil war, with the added complication of ISIS and various militias either aligned with or against ISIS or Assad.

Like you, I don't think anyone should be fighting at all and I can certainly understand why young men would not want to be drawn into participating in the atrocities that are being carried out on all sides.

I wish someone could get them all together and try and sort it out politically because there's going to be nothing left of Syria at this rate and the people who remain will be completely traumatized. Most of all I wish all these other countries (many of them very rich and powerful) would stop selling the blasted arms.

Perhaps he's not quite as bad as ISD. But he still needs to be got rid of.

sorry for the rogue 'D'

That 'cultured place' was the place where government police opened fire on people demonstrating against the impronment of aND TURTURE OF YOUTHS WHO HAD DONE NOTHING MORE THAN SCRAWL ANTI-GOVERNMENT GRAFITTE ON WALLS. [HMM]

sorry for the caps. caps lock on accidentally.

I think we in the west impose our sensibilities when judging other cultures on what we consider to be (possibly quite rightly) abhorrent on unjustified levels of violence or retribution.
I was in the Middle East at the start of this conflict and most Syrians I knew didn't think that the government response was initially too bad. One boy I knew was going home to Aleppo just as the problem was starting. I asked if he should go, he wasn't worried in the slightest. I moved jobs before he was due to return so often wonder if he was/is okay.

I know some people may think 'so what' with all the human misery that is coming out of that area, but it is also disturbing and upsetting to see the destruction of ancient sites of cultural heritage in the Middle East - the cradle of civilisation.

Roseq, this is what Tony Blair was responsible for before he was peace envoy.

www.reprieve.org.uk/case-study/abdul-hakim-belhaj/

Different place, Libya, but it's all part of the same region. Peace talks at the moment but the government are still fighting.

Terrible things are happening in Syria and we all know about it. Do you know what is happening in Yemen jingle?

Thomes Reuters Foundation reported in July 2015:

"Conflict-ridden Yemen, where more than 3,000 people have been killed and one million displaced since war broke out in March, is at risk of famine, aid chiefs said on Tuesday, the day after the conflict's highest one-day death toll was recorded.

" ................ Sunni Saudi Arabia says it is bombing the Houthis to protect the Yemeni state."

Human Rights Watch has said the Saudi-led coalition has engaged in unlawful targeting of civilian areas. Coalition air strikes have rained down on hospitals, schools, neighbourhoods, United Nations buildings and more.

Amnesty International has accused the coalition of knowingly violating international humanitarian law in its bombing campaign.

This bombing is ongoing. Yesterday over 24 people were killed. Have you heard much about it on the news? No - because it's a Saudi-led operation.