A deadly and dramatic series of events over the past few days has emphasised the grave danger that terrorism continues to pose to global peace and stability. On Thursday, twin blasts in a Beirut shopping district killed 44 people, and another attack on a mosque was thwarted. This was followed by a US air attack that claimed the life of British ISIL member Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, and the retaking by Kurdish troops of the ISIL-held Syrian city of Sinjar. On Friday, gunmen and suicide bombers claimed at least 127 lives in a series of coordinated attacks on Paris.
In Paris, at least eight assailants struck at soft targets, including the packed Bataclan concert hall, at least three restaurants and the French national stadium, which was full to capacity for a friendly football match between France and Germany. It was a shocking blow to a nation that is still recovering from the January attacks on the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
The President, Sheikh Khalifa, has joined leaders from around the world in condemning the attacks. In a cable to French president Francois Hollande, he expressed the UAE’s complete solidarity with France at this difficult time, and its support for all measures aimed at fighting and eradicating terrorism. Similar messages were sent by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
The world’s focus has again turned to ISIL, which yesterday admitted the Paris attacks. Mr Hollande has described the attacks as “an act of war”. It is certainly not difficult to see the killings as perverse revenge for recent events in Syria. Although Emwazi was a relatively low-level member, his role as ISIL’s executioner in propaganda videos made him its ugly public face. His death in a targeted missile attack on the terrorists’ self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa was a powerfully symbolic act. The offensive in Sinjar, carried out by Kurds with US air support, was also a clear and strategic victory for the coalition fighting ISIL that cut a key supply line for the group.
The indications are that ISIL is on the back foot, but we must recommit to the defeat of all agents of terror wherever they operate and whoever they target. Those who have been sucked in by the perverse ideology that guides ISIL and its ilk must be told that they can never win. They must know that, as the people of Paris proclaimed in a march of defiance after the Hebdo attack, we are not afraid.
