The Iranian regime exports more terrorism than any other state on earth and is responsible for the rise of the Islamic State terror group, US General Hugh Shelton has said in an interview.
The influence of Iran can be seen in conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and now in Egypt and Libya, because Iran’s aim is to be the most dominant force in the Middle East, he said.
Iran is now ‘fuelling, supporting and supplying’ ISIS, making them a much greater threat in the region, General Shelton warned.
He said of US policy towards Iran: “You would want to apply as much pressure on them as you possibly can. That means the sanctions are hitting them badly.
“Let’s not sign a half-baked treaty. The UN resolution said no uranium enrichment is allowed, now we are saying, we will allow some enrichment. We are not even addressing weaponisation, we are not really making sure that we can inspect those key sites to include where they are doing their nuclear testing.
“So we need to start containing Iran. We need to get back in there and use our moderate Muslim friends in that region to start to try to defeat ISIS from a political and diplomatic position, as well as supplying them with weapons.”
The US was right to currently adopt an advisory role in the conflict, combined with air support, but he added: “I think there we need to understand that ISIS is a threat that and we cannot allow them to win the Middle East.
“It is the only region in the world, that in our national security strategy is deemed a vital national interest meaning that we will fight, if necessary, to preserve that area.”
While the US was training Iraqi forces for ten years, Nouri al-Maliki was being controlled by Iran, and General Shelton said he was not confident the US would not make the same mistake again when it comes to settling the current conflict.
He added: “I would hope that we learned our lesson in Iraq and that would be an overriding consideration. I am optimistic now that Senator McCain can play a very significant role in not letting us make the same mistake.”