French President Nicholas Sarkozy yesterday expressed his real concern about the dangers of "the terrorist crescent," i.e. from Pakistan and through the African Sahel.

In a statement delivered at the annual meeting of French ambassadors, Sarkozy said that there was currently no "operational coordination between groups operating at the two ends of the terrorist crescent," but that the danger could arise from the appearance of an extended chain that would link together the terrorist bases in Qwaiti, Pakistan and southern Afghanistan with the terrorist bases in Yemen, Somalia and the Sahel.

Sarkozi said that Al-Qaeda's capacity to launch destructive attacks on the Western countries had diminished since 2001, but that the influence of Al-Qaeda and those that operate within its orbit from Pakistan to Mali has increased.

Source: Al-Khaleej, UAE, August 26, 2010