begin quote from:
(CNN)Secretary of State John Kerry
on Tuesday deemed Iran's presence in Iraq to be "helpful" to American
attempts to beat back the threat of ISIS, given their common enemy. The
measured praise for a country with which the U.S. …
John Kerry: Iran 'helpful' in fighting ISIS in Iraq
Falluja freed, focus now ISIS stronghold of Mosul 02:36
(CNN)Secretary
of State John Kerry on Tuesday deemed Iran's presence in Iraq to be
"helpful" to American attempts to beat back the threat of ISIS, given
their common enemy.
The
measured praise for a country with which the U.S. has a fraught
relationship came at the Aspen Ideas Festival, where the secretary of
state was asked to assess whether Iran was "more helpful or more
harmful" there.
"Look, we have
challenges with Iran as everybody knows and we are working on those
challenges," Kerry said. "But I can tell you that Iran in Iraq has been
in certain ways helpful, and they clearly are focused on ISIL-Daesh, and
so we have a common interest, actually."
Kerry was using a different name for ISIS.
The
top U.S. diplomat explained that he and his Iranian counterparts could
now more easily solve global crises and directly communicate.
Brent
McGurk, the U.S. special envoy tasked with defeating ISIS, said earlier
Tuesday that Iran-backed Shi'ite militias are mostly helpful in Iraq,
though some go rogue.
"We think
most of these popular mobilization forces do operate under the control
of the Iraqi state, but about 15-20% of them actually do not," McGurk
said. "And those groups are a fundamental problem."
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