The first ever mention of the group occurred on Thursday at an intelligence gathering in Washington DC, when National Intelligence Director James Clapper admitted that “in terms of threat to the homeland, Khorasan may pose as much of a danger as the Islamic State.” This brings up another issue seen in the current Western stance on terrorism: it is so focused on the terror spread by the IS that it’s beginning to forget that the destruction and mayhem of civil war across the Middle East is spawning a number of hard-to-track terrorist factions with distinct missions.

“What you have is a growing body of extremists from around the world who are coming in and taking advantage of the ungoverned areas and creating informal ad hoc groups that are not directly aligned with ISIS or Nusra,” a senior law enforcement official told the NY Times on condition of anonymity. Within the volatile conflict zone that is Syria, with its lax borders and an increasing number of distinct, armed Islamist groups, the US may be surprised by how difficult it soon may be to pinpoint the origin of the next threat.

Barely three years after Britain helped to free Libya from Colonel Gaddafi's tyranny, anti-Western radicals hold sway. How could Britain's goal of a stable and friendly Libya have been thwarted so completely? Step forward a fabulously wealthy Gulf state that owns an array of London landmarks and claims to be one of our best friends in the Middle East. Qatar, the owner of Harrods, has dispatched cargo planes laden with weapons to the victorious Islamist coalition, styling itself "Libya Dawn".

Western officials have tracked the Qatari arms flights as they land in the city of Misrata, about 100 miles east of Tripoli, where the Islamist militias have their stronghold. Even after the fall of the capital and the removal of Libya's government, Qatar is "still flying in weapons straight to Misrata airport", said a senior Western official.

So it is that Qatar buys London property while working against British interests in Libya and arming friends of the jihadists who tried to kill one of our ambassadors. A state that partly owns 1 Hyde Park, London's most expensive apartment block, and the Shard, the city's tallest building, is working with people who would gladly destroy Western society.

The remarkable truth is that few in the Middle East would be shocked. From Hamas in the Gaza Strip to radical armed movements in Syria, Qatar's status as a prime sponsor of violent Islamists, including groups linked to al-Qaeda, is clear to diplomats and experts. Qatar's promotion of extremism has so infuriated its neighbours that Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates all chose to withdraw their ambassadors from the country in March.

He pledged to introduce English votes for English laws “in tandem” with handing more powers to Holyrood, which led to speculation that further devolution would not happen without constitutional reform in England. Michael Gove, the Chief Whip, subsequently went further and said it would be “impossible” to introduce further reforms in Scotland without action on England. However, Downing Street insisted that Mr Cameron would honour his promise to devolve powers to Scotland with “no ifs, no buts”.

Some Tory MPs have privately threatened to inflict a series of rebellions on the Prime Minister that would “dwarf” the uprisings over Europe. The backbenchers are furious that their constituents are being asked to fund giveaways in Scotland without receiving any reciprocal benefit. Tory MPs at Chequers will argue today that the Government should scrap the controversial Barnett formula, which gives Scots about £1,600 more in funding per head than people in England.

The measures were adopted after a foreign intelligence agency, possibly American, intercepted a conversation between two unidentified Arabs in which they reportedly discussed 'doing something in the Vatican'. The Vatican downplayed the threat, with Federico Lombardi, its main spokesman, saying that it had not received indications of a 'particular threat or cause for concern.'

Iraq's ambassador to the Holy See warned this week that Isil saw the Pope as a legitimate target and might try to assassinate him during his trip to Albania, because of his outspoken concern for the plight of Christians in Iraq and Syria and his conditional support of US bombing raids against Isil forces. Jihadists from Isil have in recent weeks boasted of wanting to extend their caliphate to Rome, the heart of Western Christendom, and have talked of planting the jihadist black flag on top of St Peter's Basilica.

Habeeb Al Sadr, Iraq's ambassador to the Vatican, said there were also indications of a more specific threat against Pope Francis, who recently spoke out in favour of the US and its allies halting the advance of Isil in Syria and Iraq. "What has been declared by the self-declared Islamic State is clear – they want to kill the Pope. The threats against the Pope are credible," the ambassador told La Nazione, an Italian daily, on Tuesday. "I believe they could try to kill him during one of his overseas trips or even in Rome. There are members of Isil who are not Arabs but Canadian, American, French, British, also Italians. Isil could engage any of these to commit a terrorist attack in Europe."

The debate shows in a nutshell what is currently at stake in the Ukraine: the future of European foreign policy. The crisis not only reveals the centrifugal forces that are always at work within the European Union (EU): different economic interests and political cultures of its member states versus a growing need to speak and act as a unified player. It also shows a deep sense of insecurity of what a European foreign policy should be. But every crisis carries with it the seed of change. And this one is pushing the EU in the right direction.

More than two decades after the end of the Cold War, it is clear to everybody that Europe cannot afford to remain divided and indecisive in a conflict at its own doorstep. The shooting down in July of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over the Ukraine, widely believed to be by Russia-backed rebels, brought back memories of war to a continent that liked to believe that the age of wars — in this part of the world — is over.

Pictures of rotting bodies in the badlands of the Ukraine — all 298 passengers died — did not only prove the contrary. In an ‘Open Letter’ to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, 21 German intellectuals from across the political spectrum claim: “The German government resists persistently to talk about Russia’s war against the Ukraine. But every realistic policy has to call a spade a spade. The EU must not leave any doubt that the aggression against a state, with which it has an association agreement will come at a high political and economic price.”

This sets a major precedent for how other European nations could integrate and cut costs without weakening their militaries. As the economic crisis bites, more EU countries may ‘go Dutch.’ However, the trade-off here is the loss of sovereignty. The Dutch now need approval from the Germans in order to rapidly deploy their own troops.

By forming these kinds of agreements with its neighbours, Germany hopes to build an integrated European army piece by piece since its grand designs to create one more quickly have so far been thwarted by Nato favouring nations like Britain. For decades Germany has refrained from being too assertive because of its warmongering past. But now it is casting off that restraint and finding a more muscular voice in foreign affairs as it pushes for a European army.

Over 700 pledges have come in from more than 25 countries worldwide, it said; the campaign page itself has received 10,000 shares on Facebook, while the promotional pitch video, which depicts a digital rendition of the Holy Temple on the modern day Temple Mount has been viewed by over 150,000 people.

The funds raised from the Indiegogo campaign will be used to continue the research of the Institute and to commission additional architectural plans. The architects, the Institute says, will combine Jewish law with modern technology to prepare for a fully modern third Temple, Kosher to the letter of the law but including modifications like underground parking, heating and computerized washing stations that minimize water waste.

One side — with the encouragement of government and right-wing legislators — aspires to deepen Jewish hegemony over the city, while the other responds with fire bombs, fueled by growing despair and distress. The stalemate in the diplomatic process and what is perceived as a victory for Hamas and for the armed resistance in the most recent military conflict in Gaza are convincing more and more Palestinians that violence is the only way out. They are taking their anger out on Jews who have settled in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods around the Old City of Jerusalem.

Palestinian friends and colleagues told Al-Monitor that they've heard a move is afoot to turn the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif) from a Muslim place of prayer into a joint prayer site for believers of both faiths, repeating the transformation that took place at the Tomb of the Patriarchs (al-Ibrahimi Mosque) in Hebron.

Their concern is based, among other things, on a series of moves made recently by the Israeli police. At the end of June, police issued dozens of Palestinians with restraining orders barring them from the area for four months, claiming the move was needed to prevent “serious damage to persons or property.” During Ramadan (this year in July), police restricted Friday prayers to those 50 and older. Muslims’ ears are attuned to the declarations of radical Jewish elements like Yehuda Glick of the Temple Mount Heritage foundation and Bentzi Gupstein, who proclaimed, “The Muslims will soon get out and we will build the temple.”

Such talk could be dismissed as the ravings of fringe right-wingers, but it's hard to ignore when a member of the Israeli Cabinet wishes, “With God’s help, in another decade we will stand at the foot of the temple.” The speaker is Housing Minister Uri Ariel, who told Channel 2 television in July, “Here [at the site of the Dome of the Rock] I would like to see the temple. I hope I will live to see it.”

A parliamentarian of the Green Party also shows sympathy toward the idea of a Bundeswehr mission against IS. A possible intervention of German soldiers would supplement German arms deliveries to Kurdish troops in Iraq and the establishment in Erbil of a northern Iraq military nucleus, which had been completed in late August. According to experts, "the post-colonial transition period" in the Middle East is "coming to an end, but the contours of a new Arab order are not yet in sight."

The disintegration process will "most likely take long" and probably leave a Syria reduced to the western part of its current territory, an Iraq, broken into three parts or a Libya shattered into six or more segments. The war against IS opens another round of the Western struggle to reorganize the region.