Kosovo, Home to Many ISIS Recruits, Is Struggling to Stamp Out Its Homegrown Terrorism Problem

Kosovo police officers escort suspects in a terrorist plot to a court in Pristina, Kosovo, in 2015. (Visar Kryeziu/AP)
Kosovo police officers escort suspects in a terrorist plot to a court in Pristina, Kosovo, in 2015. (Visar Kryeziu/AP)
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Kosovo, Home to Many ISIS Recruits, Is Struggling to Stamp Out Its Homegrown Terrorism Problem

Kosovo police officers escort suspects in a terrorist plot to a court in Pristina, Kosovo, in 2015. (Visar Kryeziu/AP)
Kosovo police officers escort suspects in a terrorist plot to a court in Pristina, Kosovo, in 2015. (Visar Kryeziu/AP)

For all the attention paid to the emergence of homegrown Islamist terrorists in Belgium, France and other European countries, one of the continent’s biggest radicalization problems is taking place on its fringes.

Kosovo, the tiny Muslim-majority Balkan nation of just 1.8 million, has produced more foreign fighters per capita than any other Western nation since ISIS declared its now-defunct caliphate in 2014. Some 413 Kosovo citizens, including women and children, have joined that group and other Islamist extremist factions since the war in Syria began in 2012.

As it attempts to join the European Union, Kosovo has been under pressure to stamp out its radicalization problem — and authorities say they have succeeded. Since 2013, Kosovar police say they have indicted more than 120 terrorism suspects and arrested many more, including well-known conservative imams suspected of recruiting people to fight abroad.

“Now we don’t see terrorism as a threat,” said Kujtim Bytyqi, one of the government’s senior security policy analysts and the head of Kosovo’s strategy to counter violent extremism. “There is total silence. All imams, even if they want to say something, are afraid of the government.”

But many of those suspected terrorists, convicted under an older counterterrorism law in which prison sentences averaged between three and five years, are now being freed. And some say attempts to rehabilitate them have come up short.

“We are growing stronger and getting smarter,” said Fitim Lladrovci, 28, a former ISIS fighter and inmate, referring to extremists. “Terrorists will not be reintegrated, and there may be attacks here.”

Anne Speckhard, who directs the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism, said that Lladrovci’s contempt for rehabilitation and strengthened radical beliefs probably are emblematic of “some other returning militant jihadis well beyond Kosovo.” The trend, she said, “bodes ill for all of us.”

It’s a potentially ominous development for deradicalization efforts across the continent. “We have to provide a deradicalization model for the whole of Europe,” said Garentina Kraja, a senior external researcher for the Kosovo Center for Security Studies. “We’re a Muslim-majority society but we’re secular Europeans. So it feels like if there’s an example to be found somewhere, this is where we can provide a response.”

Kosovo may also be an entry point into the European Union to launch attacks, said Daniel Koehler, the director of the German Institute on Radicalization and De-radicalization Studies. In early June, Kosovo authorities arrested a couple suspected of planning attacks on NATO troops in Kosovo as well as on public places in France and Belgium.

Since April, the US Justice Department has helped implement rehabilitation programs in Kosovo’s prisons for suspects facing terrorism charges. Before then, however, the country had no comprehensive program for rehabilitating returned fighters, according to the 2018 Kosovo European Commission report.

“Most European countries have much more stable programs in place. In Germany, the UK and France, there is a long history of social welfare and prison infrastructure much stronger than in Kosovo,” Koehler said. “Kosovo is still recovering from its 1998-99 war against Serbia, and suffers corruption in the public sector and problems with rule of law.”

The new US-run program sends government psychologists, sociologists, social workers and moderate imams from the Islamic Community of Kosovo to work with inmates jailed on terrorism charges.

(The Washington Post)



Iran Turns to Moscow and Beijing to Thwart ‘Snapback’ Sanctions Threat

Sergei Lavrov and Wang Yi met in Beijing on July 13 (Reuters)
Sergei Lavrov and Wang Yi met in Beijing on July 13 (Reuters)
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Iran Turns to Moscow and Beijing to Thwart ‘Snapback’ Sanctions Threat

Sergei Lavrov and Wang Yi met in Beijing on July 13 (Reuters)
Sergei Lavrov and Wang Yi met in Beijing on July 13 (Reuters)

Iran is turning to Russia and China in a bid to head off the potential reimposition of international sanctions, amid escalating tensions over its nuclear program.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has held talks with his Chinese and Russian counterparts to discuss the future of the nuclear accord and the possibility that the European troika could trigger the “snapback” mechanism.

Iranian state media reported on Monday that Araghchi arrived in Beijing at the head of an official delegation to attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s foreign ministers. The trip comes as debate intensifies within Iran over the stances of Moscow and Beijing, particularly in the aftermath of the recent conflict between Iran and Israel.

Speaking at a press conference, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei stressed that Gulf security remains a priority for China.

“Araghchi’s visit follows an official invitation from the Chinese Foreign Minister,” he said, adding that the Iranian diplomat will hold bilateral meetings Tuesday on the sidelines of the gathering.

Baghaei emphasized Tehran’s ongoing coordination with both Russia and China, who are parties to the nuclear deal.

“Russia and China have consistently expressed their readiness to play a constructive role in the process related to Iran’s nuclear file, and this continues,” he noted. “We have longstanding, friendly relations with both countries and a strategic partnership.”

Addressing reports that Moscow has privately urged Tehran to halt uranium enrichment, Baghaei said: “We have not received any specific proposal from Russia on this matter.”

In Beijing, China’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that Foreign Minister Wang Yi discussed Iran’s nuclear issue with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, alongside other bilateral and international topics.

Meanwhile, Moscow on Sunday denounced a report claiming President Vladimir Putin had urged Iran to accept a deal with the United States that would bar it from enriching uranium. Russia’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the claim as “defamation” aimed at inflaming tensions over the Iranian nuclear program.

According to the American outlet Axios, sources familiar with the issue said Putin recently pressed Iran to agree to “zero enrichment.”

But Russia rebuffed the report as baseless, insisting its position is well known: "Invariably and repeatedly, we have emphasized the necessity of resolving the crisis concerning Iran's nuclear program exclusively through political and diplomatic means, and expressed our willingness to help find mutually acceptable solutions," the ministry statement read.

It added that Moscow stands ready to help broker mutually acceptable solutions.

Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has strengthened its ties with Tehran. While publicly backing Iran’s right to enrich uranium, Putin has reportedly adopted a tougher line behind closed doors following the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran.

According to European and Israeli officials, Moscow has encouraged Tehran to accept a “zero enrichment” compromise and shared this position with Israeli authorities. “We know this is what Putin told the Iranians,” a senior Israeli official confirmed.

Last week, Putin is said to have relayed his stance in calls with US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron.