From 2013 to 2016, Hussein said the Islamic movement would have shifted the balance of power in the Middle East away from the West and Israel, and the Islamists would be supported by new allies such as China. In this environment a new caliphate will be established.[2] Al Qaeda, he wrote, also expected the Americans to go after Iran’s principal ally in the region, Syria. The removal of the Assad regime—a longtime goal of jihadis —would allow the country to be infiltrated by Al Qaeda, putting the terrorists within reach, at last, of Israel.[2]