Rafik Hariri Center Resident Fellow Faysal Itani is quoted by Agence France-Presse on latest developments in the march towards Baghdad by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and potential US involvement in the growing crisis:
But since 2011, the Obama administration has sought to portray the situation in Iraq as a problem for the Baghdad government, repeatedly urging Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to work harder to foster unity and reconciliation.
“US officials are right to place part of the blame for this on Nuri al-Maliki,” argued Faysal Itani, a fellow with the Atlantic Council.
He called for serious pressure on Maliki “to reconcile with more mainstream aggrieved Sunni militants and tribes cooperating with ISIL, without whom ISIL would not have been able to make such swift, massive territorial gains.”