CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler quoted: "These include al-Shabaab, which still controls much of rural Somalia, the JNIM active in West Africa – particularly Mali – and the Indian subcontinent branch of al-Qaeda (AQIS).

'He accepted important new players in the al-Qaeda network,' said Hans-Jakob Schindler, director of the NGO Counter-Extremism Project and former UN adviser."