THANKFULLY, THERE IS ONLY ONE POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE:

The strategy's third component is the most difficult to realize and yet the most important. In the long term, the conflicts and chaos that enabled ISIS to spread in the first place can be overcome only if all population groups in Iraq and Syria have a shared political perspective.

In Iraq, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has launched a courageous reform program to pave the way toward greater political participation by Sunnis. In Syria, such a political process is of course still a long way off; nonetheless, we must do all we can to work in this direction.

German foreign policy is at the forefront of these efforts. I have had countless (and often difficult) talks in Riyadh, Tehran, Ankara, Beirut, Amman, and Vienna in the last year to help bridge the divide between countries in the region - and thus rein in their proxy forces battling one another in Syria.

I am heartened by the fact that, for the first time after almost five years of civil war, we succeeded in bringing all key states to the negotiating table in Vienna and agreed on a road map for a ceasefire and a political transition process. It's too early to celebrate, but there is finally a minimal consensus - shared not just by Russia and the United States, but also by Iran and Saudi Arabia - on a way forward to resolve the Syria conflict. The meeting of Syrian opposition groups in Riyadh in December was the first step on this path.

Achieving a political agreement will be a long and arduous journey, and the outcome is not entirely in our hands. Some of the partners who we need on board are pursuing interests very different from ours. Some are at loggerheads with one another.

SPIEGEL: This moderate or mainstream opposition is said to be fractured and badly organized. Is that a fair assessment?

Lister: I have been in close contact with all major opposition groups on the ground since late 2011, and I have increasingly found that the armed opposition is not as disunited as people think. We tend to think that a group like the FSA cannot possibly get on with a more conservative group like Ahrar al-Sham, because their ideologies are so different. But when you actually sit down with them, discussing their political vision for Syria, they tend to be very similar. There is a shared sense of nationalism that can unite the opposition.

SPIEGEL: How has the Russian intervention changed the situation?

Lister: When Russia first intervened, Moscow's message was that this would be a temporary operation, and that it was a fight against terrorism. But it quickly became clear that they were just bolstering the Assad regime. By now, Russia is in Syria for the long haul. In the beginning, observers talked about how this intervention was going to radicalize the opposition, to make everyone more Islamist. I think what has happened is not so much a religious but a political radicalization. Many of these groups have adopted a hard line towards Russia's role in determining Syria's future.

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