As the United States and its coalition partners continue to engage ISIS with airstrikes and the arming of regional ground forces in Iraq and Syria, it still remains unclear what actions Iran and its supreme leader Ali Khamenei are willing to take.
Staff Reporter
It is undeniable that the Shiite-led Persian nation welcomes the destruction of the Sunni Islamic State, yet the region’s most influential player has thus far refused to cooperate in the effort to defeat ISIS.
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria believes that objective can only be achieved by a joint US/Iran effort. In an article he wrote in September titled "We Need Iran in Order to Get to Isis," the CNN contributor outlines steps that he believes the Obama administration should consider in dealing with ISIS. "If the goal is to get the Iraqi government to share more power with the Sunnis," he writes, "Iran's help would be invaluable, perhaps vital”. Despite the formation of a new government in Baghdad under Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the situation on the ground in Iraq remains unchanged, with the country’s disaffected Sunni population still jockeying for greater representation and governing duties that are not just ceremonial in nature.
Although it is unlikely that we will see a US/Iran partnership in defeating ISIS, the idea has precedence. There have been many times since the 1979 Iranian revolution that deposed the US backed Iranian Shah, that the US and Iran have collaborated when similar interests are at stake. But this is a situation where Iran stands to gain from doing absolutely nothing. If the US led coalition continues to push ISIS back in Syria, Iran benefits in its role as a close ally to embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Even though defeating ISIS is at the forefront of geo-politics at the moment, the Syrian civil war looms in the distance. Al-Assad is still holding on to what power he has left, crippling ISIS only boost his regime and shifts the focus off of him. If Iran were to join the coalition and helped to destroy ISIS, they simply help to destroy a mutual enemy.
Department of Defense employee and Obama advisor Dr. David Crist told Dateline that the US does not need the help of Iran at all when trying to defeat ISIS. "I don't think [we] need Iran to destroy ISIS," he says. "We have the capability to degrade ISIS if Iraq supports our efforts. So far they are." While Iraq is supporting US efforts to lead the coalition tasked with destroying ISIS, they have yet to be of any significant help. As seen when ISIS first began encroaching on Iraqi territory, the US trained Iraqi army merely dropped their weapons and ran in the face of ISIS brutality. Reports from Iraq today still show little gains made by the Iraqi army, even with ongoing airstrikes on ISIS strongholds. Although Dr. Crist believes we do not need Iran to destroy ISIS, he does think their help may be sought in preventing other upstarts like ISIS. "Iran and Russia need to be a part of any long-term solution for Syria and the larger instability in the region that is breeding groups like ISIS." Iran is a close ally of Syria, and any efforts in dealing with Syria would be more effective if Iran is used as a go between.
Whatever Iran decides to do, the fact still remains that ISIS represents a major problem for the region. If US –led efforts to defeat ISIS do not succeed, Iran should prepare itself to be faced with another regional enemy. While it waits quietly on the sidelines, Iran, unlike the US and its coalition, has many options it may choose. And while a nuclear plan may remain the deciding factor, eventually the US and Iran will have to decide which interest matters most and whether or not they are finally willing to cooperate on the destruction and degradation of ISIS.