Last week’s FocusKSA discussion brought together leading thinkers and analysts to discuss the advance of ISIS in Iraq and hash out the implications for key players, especially the United States and Saudi Arabia. In his opening remarks, Hardin Lang, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress (CAP), discussed the findings from the just-released CAP study, co-written with Brian Katulis and Vikram Singh, entitled “On the Brink: Managing the ISIS Threat in Iraq.”
“The failure of Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, to build an inclusive political system has enabled the current startling advances of militants across Iraq led by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS,” the paper notes. “As a result, ISIS was able to quickly seize towns across northern and central Iraq while the U.S.-trained and equipped security forces, weakened by Maliki’s politicization of their leadership and exclusion of Sunnis, melted away. Iraq is back on the brink of all-out sectarian civil war.”
Addressing the panelists and live online audience, Lang gave a review of that paper’s findings and recommendations. “We urge the U.S. to engage in a full-court press throughout the region involving top military, intel, and diplomatic officials to persuade relevant regional stakeholders – Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia at the head of the list – and even Iran to step back from actions in Iraq and Syria that could lead to wider conflagration.”
Saudi has a critical role to play in terms of stemming the flow of illegal money and support from private donors in GCC states to ISIS, Lang noted.
