LONDONOn a chilly afternoon in the British capital, Maamoun Abdulkarim, a 48-year-old Syrian archaeologist, sits in a small conference room and outlines his vision for liberating what’s left of one of the world’s greatest archaeological sites from the grip of Islamic fundamentalists.  "My hope is to see all of the world together in the battle for Palymric Normandy," he explains in heavily accented English. "It’s a Syrian battle, it’s an opposition battle, it is the UK, America, Russia."

Four years into a brutal civil war, the idea of Syrian regime and opposition forces and their allies joining together to run ISIS out of Palmyra seems very unlikely. But what’s even more unlikely is the source of the idea: Maamoun