Special to WorldTribune.com

ABU DHABI — Al Qaida is said to have formed armies that could spread throughout the Middle East.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari warned that Al Qaida and aligned militias were turning into veritable military forces in Syria. Zebari said these armies could move into neighboring countries such as Iraq and Jordan.

“The most important danger coming out from the Syrian conflict for Iraq
and the region is the mushrooming of terrorist groups in Syria,” Zebari
said. “We are not talking about hundreds, or a few individuals. We are
talking about thousands.”

In an address on Dec. 7 to the Manama Dialogue, Zebari said Al Qaida
armies consisted of both Middle East and European nationals. The foreign
minister said Al Qaida was trying to establish what he termed emirates in
countries throughout the Levant.

“These are armies of recruits of international dimensions; they are not
just Syrians,” Zebari said. “They are Europeans. Some have come from as far
as Australia. This is really toxic. The day will come when we have another
Islamic emirate outside of international control.”

This was one of the most specific warnings by Iraq of the Al Qaida
threat from Syria. Baghdad has reported the influx of nearly 300,000 Syrians
amid the nearly three-year civil war in Syria.

“This conflict on our doorstep will definitely have a devastating
impact,” Zebari said. “We are already suffering a great deal from the
spillover of this conflict on our borders.”

Zebari envisioned that Al Qaida would feel free to employ chemical
weapons as had the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The Iraqi
minister said the Middle East did not envision that Assad would go
unpunished for his non-conventional attacks.

“When Assad used chemical weapons and there was no action there was a
great deal of frustration that we were now living in a new world, a
different world, where such actions go unpunished,” Zebari said. “Who could
have imagined five or six years ago that a regime would use chemical weapons
and we would stand by?”

Zebari’s counterpart in Qatar agreed. Qatar’s Foreign Minister Khalid
Bin Mohammed Al Attiyah said the Syrian war proved the failure of military
solutions.

“The lesson learned following these events is that the approach of using
military force will not lead to the solutions needed to achieve security and
stability,” Al Attiyah said. “We must promote the concept of security
through a political process that will involve all the parties in the
region.”

  Al Qaida ‘armies’ growing in Syria pose threat to region, Hoshyar Zebari, Jordan, Manama Dialogue, official warns