Extremist networks linked to ISIS have called for attacks against Hindus in India and across South and Southeast Asia, even as they praised recent violence in the United States and expanded online recruitment, according to a new report by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP).

“The relationship between the cartels and Hezbollah is long-standing, significant and multifaceted,” the senior director of the Counter Extremism Project, Hans-Jakob Schindler, told The New York Sun. Mr. Schindler said the “strategically most significant part” of the relationship between the cartels and Hezbollah is financial cooperation in the international illicit drug trade.

“This also includes money laundering activities that Hezbollah is now also able to offer other organized crime networks as a service,” he said, adding, “This role has only increased since the war with Israel following the attack of Hezbollah on Israel” the day after Hamas’s assault on October 7, 2023.

Where is Mojtaba Khamenei? Days after being named Iran's supreme leader following Ali Khamenei's death, Mojtaba Khamenei has not appeared on camera. Hans-Jakob Schindler of the Counter Extremism Project tell DW what's known about him.

[CEP Senior Director] Middle East and terrorism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler doubted whether the current strategy would achieve the former in particular. The current aim is to bring about regime change through air strikes so that sufficient numbers of people from the security apparatus defect to the opposition side. In return, the Iranian regime would have a plan to drive up the economic costs for the USA and the world so that they would end the war for economic reasons. In his opinion, it should not come to that, because: "If the regime survives, we will see chaos."

Expert Hans-Jakob Schindler assumes that Ahmadinejad is still alive. And there must be a reason for that. “For right on the very first day, the U.S. and Israel succeeded—100 percent—in killing those individuals who had been identified as priority targets,” says the Senior Director at the international Counter Extremism Project (CEP) in Berlin. Ahmadinejad, it seems, was likely not among them.

According to terrorism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler, bringing about regime change solely through airstrikes is an extremely risky undertaking. The airstrikes would have to continue until a sufficient number of security apparatus employees defected to the opposition.

But can the American-Israeli airstrikes truly bring about a democratic change of power? Terrorism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler emphasized that no attempt has ever been made to effect regime change solely from the air. One would then have to hope that enough people within the system would switch sides to the opposition.

The most intriguing presentation of Thursday evening was reserved for Hans-Jakob Schindler. The security expert was addressed directly by Illner, who directed her hands at him, subtly gesturing with them to resemble pistols. Schindler, in any case, presented himself as a cool observer: the current regime must go, not least because it would exact incredible revenge on the Iranians if it remained in power.

CEP senior research analyst Josh Lipowsky told the Jewish Standard: “Over the past week or two we have seen a significant blow to the Iranian influence on the region,” Mr. Lipowsky said. “Look at Lebanon. The Lebanese prime minister, Nawaf Salam, declared last week that all of Hezbollah’s military activity was illegal. A few days after that, he called for the arrest of all IRCG officers operating in Lebanon.” The IRCG is the Iranian Islamic Military Guard. “These are steps that would have been unthinkable just last year.”

Hans-Jakob Schindler, Middle East and terrorism expert, director of the Counter-Extremism Project (CEP) think tank, speaks on possible outcomes of the war.