Daily Times

Islamic State (IS) is demonstrating its ‘negotiating’ power by holding hostages and issuing increasingly impossible demands. The militant group has in captivity a Japanese hostage, journalist Kenji Goto, still alive even though the group recently killed another Japanese captive. They also have in their custody a Jordanian pilot, Muath al-Kasaesbah, captured after his plane crashed in northeastern Syria last month. The militants are demanding the release of an Iraqi woman in a Jordanian prison who was part of the deadly 2005 bombing in Amman, killing 60 people. She survived because her suicide vest failed to detonate. Sajida al-Rishawi is currently on death row in Jordan and the authorities in that country are refusing to release her to IS if it cannot prove the safety of its pilot. The deadline for the prisoner swap passed about two days ago and IS is known to execute its hostages, sometimes in brutal ways, if its demands are not met.

The whole situation is a tense one, with the Japanese authorities on edge wondering whether the Jordanians will quietly exchange their own prisoners, and the Jordanians swearing that if anything happens to their pilot they will fast track the execution of al-Rishawi. This situation has become a ticking time bomb and will not be the last of its kind. With every prisoner they kill, IS becomes more emboldened to kidnap and demand. If their demands are not met, the militants kill in rage and frustration but if quiet deals are or will ever be made, they will carry out many more such kidnappings and murders. It is a damned if you do and damned if don’t kind of situation with the governments of all those nationals who are taken hostage made to make some very tough decisions. In the dock now are the Japanese and the Jordanians.

IS is a scourge that is devastating the Middle East. It is changing the face of the region into a spreading fire, devouring everything in its path. Journalists and aid workers are the most commonly victimised because they make for soft targets. IS does not disappoint in fulfilling its promise to murder savagely its hostages. It is feared the remaining Japanese and Jordanian will meet the same fate. If the Jordanians agree to the prisoner swap, they and others must brace themselves for more such happenings. *