A map of the current position of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), as well as Iranian anti-ISIS forces, shows that while Iran will continue fighting ISIS, it has no interest in defeating the terror organization. The map was created by security researcher Michael Pregent, who was interviewed yesterday by Armin Rosen of Business Insider.
Iran has no intention of defeating ISIS in Iraq – Iran will use threat of ISIS to stay – an unstable Iraq is the goal pic.twitter.com/E3JER2XX0Y
— Michael P Pregent (@MPPregent) April 30, 2015
As the map demonstrates, the jihadist group’s domain lies beyond both Iran and the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government’s priority defensive boundary. As Pregent told Business Insider, the map shows that “Iran has no intent of defeating ISIS.”
As Pregent notes, ISIS has been defeated nearly everywhere the group has been fought on the ground. “The map tells a story,” he told Business Insider. “ISIS is able to maintain territory because it’s unopposed. But where it’s opposed it loses territory, in both Iraq and Syria.”
The black ring cutting through central Iraq and Syria is there because the region’s military actors just aren’t interested in challenging the group in those areas.
Iran’s interest in allowing ISIS to continue operating helps them justify its presence in Iraq and Syria, claiming “that their allies in both countries are the only thing preventing a jihadist takeover.”
“Iran needs the threat of ISIS and Sunni jihadist groups to stay in Syria and Iraq in order to become further entrenched in Damascus and Baghdad,” Pregent said.
Rosen added that Iran’s failure to commit significant forces to the Sunni-majority city of Ramadi in Iraq shows that it and its proxies aren’t interested in in extending its influence into regions “beyond a defensible position.”
Pregent documented the U.S.’s current strategy of tacitly working with Iran to fight ISIS in On This Battlefield, the U.S. and Iran Work Hand in Hand, which was published in April 2015 of The Tower Magazine, noting that it was highly unlikely to defeat the terror organization.
[Photo: Business Insider]