U.S., Gulf Facing own Failures in Jihadist Threat

In finally tackling the jihadist threat in Syria and Iraq, Washington and Gulf Arab states are confronting a "monster" that has come back to bite them, partly through their own failings, analysts say.

After a stop Wednesday in Baghdad, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will hold talks Thursday with Arab states and Turkey in Saudi Arabia to broaden an international alliance set to act against the Islamic State movement (IS).

In a speech to the nation, President Barack Obama is also due Wednesday to outline a strategy to confront IS and address criticism his administration has failed to respond to the rise of a group whose atrocities have shocked the world.

Analysts say after so long spent dithering, the attempt at a coordinated effort against IS is a welcome change.

"It's good that they're finally trying to choke the monster that they -- if not created -- at least fed," said Francois Heisbourg of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research.

Experts said IS, which has seized control of swathes of Iraq and Syria and committed widespread atrocities, has been the inadvertent creation of efforts to help Syria's less-radical opposition against President Bashar Assad -- himself backed by Iran and Russia.

In the past three years, wealthy businessmen, clerics and charities from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait have channeled funds to rival Sunni armed groups in Syria, with a nod from their governments.

The United States, Britain, France and Turkey have also given military assistance to opposition groups like the Free Syrian Army, with unintended results.

"There is obviously a risk anytime the U.S. plays the proxy game that those proxies could mutate into something antithetical to U.S. interests down the road or transfer U.S. arms to hostile actors," said Frederic Wehrey, U.S. Middle East politics and Gulf expert at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

A report published Monday by London-based Conflict Armament Research revealed U.S. arms destined for moderate Syrian opposition groups were found in the hands of IS fighters.

Anti-tank rockets used by IS in Syria are identical to M79s supplied by Saudi Arabia to the Free Syrian Army, the report said.

Oil-rich Gulf monarchies Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait have all meanwhile backed their own horses among the Syrian opposition, with Kuwaitis the "single largest source of funding for Al-Qaida factions" in Syria, notably Al-Nusra Front, Wehrey said.

The U.N. Security Council added in August six names, including that of Kuwaiti donor Hajjaj al-Ajmi, to a list of extremists to face sanctions for their links to Al-Qaida.

But unlike in Western countries that have strict rules to prevent funds moving to extremist groups, Gulf states appear to have a "permissive legal and political environment" allowing private financing of rebels, Wehrey said.

Analysts said much has changed in recent weeks, however, as the recent gains by IS in Iraq have raised fears of the growing power of radical Islamists.

Qatar, for example, had intervened in Syria with the aim of widening its regional influence by supporting fundamentalist groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, perceived then by Doha as the prevailing movement after Arab Spring uprisings, Wehrey said.

Qatar played an "arsonist and fireman" game in order to become the "region's indispensable power broker," he said.

But Doha's policies have shifted toward "retrenchment and greater caution" since Egypt's army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, and as Saudi Arabia took the lead in dealing with the Syrian file.

For the United States, the situation changed in June with the lightning jihadist offensive that brought sizable Iraqi territories, including oil fields, under the control of Islamists.

The Islamic State "threatens U.S. interests and shows the total failure of the U.S. intervention in Iraq (in 2003)," said Mathieu Guidere, professor of Middle Eastern Studies at France's University of Toulouse.

He points out that IS originated in the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI), which appeared in 2006 and has "survived" despite attempts to eradicate it before U.S. forces pulled out of the country in 2011.

Gulf monarchies also fear the threat of IS to their own stability.

They worry about a return of volunteer jihadists from Iraq and Syria -- as was the case in the 1990s when Arab fighters who supported the mujahedeen in Afghanistan triggered trouble when they returned home.

Some 12,000 foreign fighters were present in Syria by the end of May, according to a study by Soufan Group published by The Economist last month. Those included 3,000 Westerners as well as 2,500 Saudis.

Saudi King Abdullah warned Western countries last month that they could be the next target of jihadists if they fail to initiate a rapid response.

"If we ignore them, I am sure they will reach Europe in a month and America in another month," he said.