The foremost threat to Iraq's long-term stability and the broader regional equilibrium is not the Islamic State, it is Shiite militias, many backed by - and some guided by - Iran.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The rise of ISIS in Iraq is a wider threat to the stability of the Middle East and the West than many realise.
These Sunni Arabs in places like al Anbar province in Iraq, where I served back in 2007, if they see Iran as the dominant power, a Shiite country, they're going to be much more likely to want to join ISIS.
The Iranian regime, in my mind, is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East.
Basically, Islamic State is a combined al Qaeda and Lebanese Hezbollah on steroids, destabilizing the region, dissolving borders/changing the political geography in the Mid-east, and hardening political positions that make Mid-east peace-building more remote by the day.
Iran poses the most serious long-term threat to regional stability.
Iran is not an enemy of ISIS; they have a lot to gain from the turmoil that ISIS creates.
Iran's continued drive to develop nuclear capabilities, including troubling enrichment activities and past work on weaponization documented by the IAEA, and its continued support to groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist organizations make clear that the regime in Tehran is a very grave threat to all of us.
It is time for Iran and other stakeholders to begin to address the causes of tension in the wider Persian Gulf region. We need a sober assessment of the complex and intertwined realities here and consistent policies to deal with them. The fight against terror is a case in point.
A free and stable Iraq will be a shining light against the shadow of Islamic extremism.
The Islamic State is a threat to both the moderate Islam headed by Mr. Saad al-Hariri and, of course, for Hezbollah. There is a convergence, an anxiety of a common enemy... which is good.