Zawahiri threatens France and announces merger with GSPC
By Olivier Guitta
Further to my recent post on the threat on France, the recent September 11 video message of Zawahiri confirms this. Zawahiri again denounced France for the 2004 law on religious signs but this time also blames France for its active participation in UNIFIL forces in Lebanon. Indeed Zawahiri asks to hit the interests of the Jews and the Crusaders and forcefully condems all those who support UN Resolution 1701 on Lebanon.
Importantly, even though since 2003 the GSPC had pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda, Zahawiri being the messenger of Osama Bin Laden only announces now Al Qaeda's official merger with the GSPC. In fact, last year Zawahiri originally refused the GSPC's help. But it sounds like as of now GSPC's assets are important to Al Qaeda. In fact, GSPC's extensive networks in Western Europe especially France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Britain is a godsend for Al Qaeda and allows them to really boost up their operations in that region of the world. In practical terms, Zawahiri instructs his European operatives to work hand in hand with the GSPC.
This does not bode well especially for France since it is GSPC's number one enemy.
In light of these new developments, it seems only logical that French authorities are worried about that "merger".