ISIS extremely dangerous, inspires intl terror: Prof Susser

The Islamic State (ISIS) is an "extremely dangerous" terror organisation, which is a source of inspiration and support for international terrorism, Dr Asher Susser, Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University in Israel, has said here.

He was delivering a lecture on 'Israel, Iran and the Arabs: The Middle East of the 21st Century' at the Pune International Centre here on Friday.

"We have to distinguish between the IS as a territorial facet in the region, which I think has been demolished...But ISIS is internationally extremely dangerous, not because of their military power, not because of their territorial base, which has disappeared, but because ISIS is a source of inspiration for international terrorism," he said.

Since it is a source of inspiration and support for international terrorism, it is very difficult to combat, he added.

"ISIS has the capacity to engage in terrorism. We have seen it in France, we have seen it in Sri Lanka," he said.

Giving the example of Israel, Susser said the country fought terrorism fairly successfully due to its "outstanding intelligence" and "effective military force".

"The problem of those who stand up to ISIS, they have neither of these capacities...take the example the European Union. Their intelligence on ISIS and military capabilities are relatively poor. Although every EU member has its own intelligence operations, they do not cooperate," he said, and called for greater international cooperation.

Prof Susser said the Middle East of the 21st century is not the Arab world as it used to be.

"Arab countries have declined economically, politically and also in terms of their power in the region. This is due to lack of political freedom, deficit of first world education and gender equality," he said.

Former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Gautam Bambawale was also present at the talk.