So what is really behind "The Deal"?

[acroyear70]

One of the common questions asked is why haven't the "moderate" Middle Eastern governments taken a harder stance against ISIS. Even Turkey, a NATO ally, kept the border rather porous for individuals to cross and join with ISIS, and resisted letting us use our own air strips within their country for strikes against them until the nutcases crossed

Comments

[vvalkyri]

Yah. Daesh will get around to dealing with apostate Saudi (for doing anything other than sharia law) long after they are done with targeting the Shia. I read the Atlantic article "what Isis wants" from back in March the other night. Terrifying stuff.

I'm not wholly sure that your explanation covers the porous borders but it does add some further perspective to the Iran deal,

[acroyear70]

regarding Turkey: I'm not totally convinced, either. It is just the best explanation so far for their apathy 'til recently.

But it does explain Jordan's lack of interest. They're not threatened now, in spite of their relative secularism. But if Daesh takes all of Iraq, they will be...and if Iran gets into Iraq, they will be, unless they look to the Russians (it won't be us in this case - they're already in business deals with the Russians) to broker a temporary alliance. Russia is a key to bringing Iran on board (they supply the arms) and that may have been something that Obama and Putin discussed at G20. Putin's "40 countries" speech explicitly named Iran as a country that needs to step forward.