Former CIA operative Gary Berntsen said the Obama administration was “missing the picture” in its strategy to combat ISIL. Berntsen also said President Obama is “not even talking about the partners properly on who we’re going to need to do this job.” Berntsen told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade that the U.S. strategy should be focused on reaching out to Gulf Cooperation Council states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to commit money, air power, and ground troops. Reaching out to Saudi Arabia, he said, would be a diplomatic challenge due to deterioration in the Saudi-U.S. relationship. “[The Saudis] are suspicious of the United States because we were talking to the Iranians without consulting with them, about their nuclear program,” Berntsen said. “So we’re going to have to repair our relationship with Saudi Arabia. “There is a lot of heavy lifting diplomatically that’s going to have to be done with the GCC to get them in.” Although the BBC reported last week that Iranian military leaders were willing to cooperate with the U.S. against ISIL, Berntsen said cooperating with Shia forces would only alienate and antagonize Sunni tribal leaders further.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 12:35:29 +0000
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