The Associated Press quotes Rafik Hariri Center Senior Fellow Frederic Hof on how the United States might build a regional coalition to strike the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham:
The countries facing the greatest threat of a new Islamic State offensive, the United States wants different things of these two. U.S. and Jordanian special forces have cooperated for a couple of years in Syria, vetting opposition groups and providing limited weapons and training to those deemed worthy of assistance. The Americans will probably seek an active military role for the Jordanians, but will need to assure them the U.S. is committed to the Islamic State group’s destruction. “King Abdullah doesn’t want to be hanging out there if the United States moves on,” says Frederic Hof, the State Department’s former point-man for Syria and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. Lebanon is trickier, given the Shiite militant group Hezbollah’s influence in the country and active involvement on behalf of Assad in Syria’s civil war. The most Washington could probably hope for is Lebanon to keep a lid on its own problems and not add to regional Shiite vs. Sunni confrontation.