Iran may help give birth to a “maligned” Shiite terrorist group that mirrors the Sunni Islamic State’s (ISIS/ISIL) savagery, the U.S. State Department’s special envoy to Syria cautioned on Thursday.
While speaking at the Sixth Annual Defense One Summit, U.S. envoy James Jeffrey arguedthat, in Iraq and Syria, where U.S.-led coalition and Tehran-allied fighters have together taken on ISIS, “It requires stability ops to break Iran’s meddling influence.”
Jeffrey cautioned that Iran “will create a new Daesh if we don’t get at the underlying problem,” using an Arabic acronym for ISIS. Although American troops and Iran-backed militias fought against ISIS, Shiite fighters have vocally opposed America’s presence in Iraq.
“Direct military action would not be enough to defeat Iran and its expanding network of armed allies, many of which were comprised of Shiite Muslim militias. Like the Pentagon and its own local partners, these fighters have fought jihadi groups like ISIS in Iraq and Syria, but they oppose U.S. influence there,” Newsweek notes.
To counter pressure from the West, Iran “will create a new Daesh if we don’t get at the underlying problem,” referring to an Arabic acronym for ISIS, the American envoy predicted.
In coordination with Russia, Iranian terrorist proxies Hezbollah, the IRGC, and other Tehra-hired Shiite fighters from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other countries are already fighting on behalf of dictator Bashar al-Assad, ultimately allowing the Syrian regime to control more territory in Syrian than any other warring party. READ MORE
