The Washington Free Beacon quotes Rafik Hariri Center Senior Fellow Frederic Hof on the role of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham:
Additionally, partnering with Syria against ISIL would undermine the credibility of the United States, said Frederic Hof, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and former special adviser on Syria for the Obama administration.
Hof said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad previously facilitated the flow of al Qaeda operatives into Iraq during the U.S. invasion. He is now accused of committing war crimes against his own people during a three-year civil war.
Assad has also formed a tacit alliance with ISIL—which uses northern and eastern Syria as the base of its operations—to eliminate moderate rebels battling his government.
“Working with the Assad regime is not merely to work with a devil,” Hof said. “It’s to work with a devil who on a good day will meet you 10 percent of the way before trying to walk back on that 10 percent.”