Iran is still backing Assad's genocidal regime, whose behaviour is partially responsible for the current sectarian spillover into Iraq and for the thousands of innocent lives lost as a consequence. The West should not join Iran on the frivolous assumption that a shared dislike for IS creates common ground on anything else. The best evidence for this is that Iran has been bent on killing Americans for decades. Iran was responsible for the bombing of the US embassy and the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, numerous kidnappings and murders of Americans in the Middle East, and the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia in 1996. Since 2003, Iran has armed, trained, and financed the Iraqi Shia militias who killed hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq. Often guided by the very same Quds Force that Iran is now dispatching to fight IS, Shia militias also stoked sectarian violence in Iraq and in the process contributed to the crisis that Iran is now offering to help defuse.
My enemy's enemy is also holding US citizens hostage. Two Iranian-Americans, former US marine Amir Hekmati and Pastor Saeed Abedini, are being held inside Iran on trumped-up charges. A former FBI agent, Bob Levinson, disappeared in 2007 during a visit to Iran and is widely believed to be in Iranian hands. Iran has a long history of seizing American hostages that goes back to the 1979 US embassy takeover. Not the most auspicious sign for partnership.
My enemy's enemy continues to kill my friends. As the world's foremost sponsor of terrorism, Iran supports both Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel's most implacable foes, the worst spoilers of stability in the Levant and arguably the two biggest obstacles to the Middle East peace process.
Finally, my enemy's enemy is also hell-bent on getting nuclear weapons to assert its hegemonic ambitions in the region while oppressing its citizens at home. Helping it remove a rival will not quell its thirst for supremacy. In the Middle East America's goals remain diametrically opposed to Iran's ambition to establish its supremacy and erode America's influence. Aligning ourselves with our enemies would not yield any added value in the fight against IS, but it would make Iran stronger and more indispensable in a region where Iranian and American interests have rarely coincided since 1979.
My enemy's enemy is also holding US citizens hostage. Two Iranian-Americans, former US marine Amir Hekmati and Pastor Saeed Abedini, are being held inside Iran on trumped-up charges. A former FBI agent, Bob Levinson, disappeared in 2007 during a visit to Iran and is widely believed to be in Iranian hands. Iran has a long history of seizing American hostages that goes back to the 1979 US embassy takeover. Not the most auspicious sign for partnership.
My enemy's enemy continues to kill my friends. As the world's foremost sponsor of terrorism, Iran supports both Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel's most implacable foes, the worst spoilers of stability in the Levant and arguably the two biggest obstacles to the Middle East peace process.
Finally, my enemy's enemy is also hell-bent on getting nuclear weapons to assert its hegemonic ambitions in the region while oppressing its citizens at home. Helping it remove a rival will not quell its thirst for supremacy. In the Middle East America's goals remain diametrically opposed to Iran's ambition to establish its supremacy and erode America's influence. Aligning ourselves with our enemies would not yield any added value in the fight against IS, but it would make Iran stronger and more indispensable in a region where Iranian and American interests have rarely coincided since 1979.
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