By Luke Hunt
The bloc has finally broken its silence. Can it now contribute to the fight against the terrorist outfit?
In a refreshing departure from its usual say nothing approach to all things diplomatic, ASEAN has finally broken its silence over the self-anointed Islamic State (IS), and issued its first joint statement on the crisis, warning of the threat the terrorist outfit poses to global security.
It also backed United Nations Security Council resolutions calling on the international community to suppress the flow of foreign terrorist fighters and their financing, saying they “not only pose a threat to the people of Iraq and Syria, but also to all countries in Middle East, and, if left unchecked, to the rest of the world.”
The statement was issued after an ASEAN-US ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. It also said ASEAN denounces “all acts of destruction, violence, and terror in all its forms.”
ASEAN countries – in particular Muslim-dominated Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei – had been coy about the rise of IS, also known as ISIS and ISIL – and its spread from Syria westward into much of Iraq where it is now threatening Baghdad and laying siege to the Kurdistan region.
Authorities fear up to 200 Indonesians and at least 30 Malaysians have traveled to Syria and Iraq to fight with IS, including women.
Read the full story at The Diplomat