Before Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger weighed in on the threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), he stressed that the more dangerous enemy is Iran in an interview with NPR on Saturday.
There have come into being a kind of a Shia-belt from Tehran through Baghdad to Beirut. And this gives Iran the opportunity to reconstruct the ancient Persian Empire, this time under a Shia label. From a geo-strategic point of view, I consider Iran a bigger problem than ISIS.
ISIS is a group of adventurers with a very aggressive ideology. But they have to conquer more and more territory before they can become a geo-strategic, permanent reality. I think a conflict with ISIS – important as it is – is more manageable than a confrontation with Iran.
Kissinger cautioned that the United States still needs to plan a "a strong attack on ISIS for a period that is related to the murder of the American" and to "set strategic objectives where we thwart any goal they set themselves."
Just one day earlier, Iran failed to provide the International Atomic Energy Agency a full account of the country's previous nuclear research.
h/t The Tower.org