In an appearance on CNN Monday, Jonathan Schanzer, Vice President for Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, praised the United States for its raids – like the successful raid that killed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) financier Abu Sayyaf in Syria over the weekend – but said that more such operations were necessary to degrade the capabilities of ISIS effectively. Schanzer also argued that the United States had effectively let Iran “march in,” and take advantage of the chaos in Iraq, which allowed Tehran to extend its influence over the country.
Well, look, I think that the U.S. is, to a certain extent, not taking all the steps necessary. You know, there certainly is more room for raids along the lines of what we just saw over the weekend. That’s one thing. I think we’ve seen a relatively small number of bombing raids take place relative to other actions that we’ve taken in the past, so I think there’s real concern. But I think more broadly, you know, we’re looking at the response right now. Sure, we’re calling in air strikes, but we’re also allowing Iranian-backed militias to join the fight. Of course, among those militias are Kata’ib Hezbollah. This is a militia that has been designated by the U.S. Treasury for destabilizing Iraq …designated back in 2009. Here we are allowing them to march in. …
This [Iran] is an aspiring hegemony, they’re looking to capture as much of Iraq as possible. So when ISIS comes in and takes a town like Ramadi, Iran looks at this as an opportunity for them to come in with their militias and take over. So you’ve got IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], the revolutionary guards of Iran, capturing more and more territory inside Iraq and Syria. This is very much a part of their strategy.
A video of the complete interview is embedded below.