Friday, August 12, 2016

Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW Editor, Interviewed Over RT Worldwide Satellite Television Network: 'ISIS Looking for New Allies'
Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor, Pan-African News Wire, called the latest news on the Taliban and ISIS claiming responsibility for the Pakistan attack and a reported truce between them an “intriguing development.”  

“We know that in other regions such as Nigeria, as well as Somalia, there have been claims that ISIS has formed alliances with the Islamic extremist organizations in those countries – in particular Boko Haram in north eastern Nigeria, as well as the Al Shabaab organization in Somalia,” he said.

“Whether this is something that is localized in regard to the situation in Pakistan, or whether it is an international development, where perhaps disgruntled elements within the IS, which have been under fire in Turkey, as well as Syria, Iraq, and Libya, may be looking for new allies,” he added.

The same refers to the escalation of the US and NATO forces in Central Asia, Azikiwe told RT.

“As was decided at the recent NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland – the Obama administration and others saying that they are going to escalate the pressure in Afghanistan, and of course this will spill over into Pakistan as well,” he added.

Asked whether he thinks it is plausible that the Taliban could be internally squabbling over the prospect of teaming up with ISIS, Azikiwe said: “Yes, we’ve seen the development of these alliances over the last decade and a half, when the US and NATO intervened in Afghanistan in 2001.”

“They claim that their principle target was Al-Qaeda. But later on there was the targeting of the Taliban, which was overthrown in October 2001 in the aftermath of the bombings in New York at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington DC,” he said. “Then there have been other organizations that have been targeted as well – the Haqqani network and others, the Taliban in Pakistan has also been the focus of drone attacks; and US interventions across the border from Afghanistan as well. So these alliances have been shifting over the course of the last few years.”

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent RT.

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