Al Jazeera America quotes Rafik Hariri Center Resident Fellow Faysal Itani on building an international coalition to combat the threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham:
Bridging regional hostilities may not be necessary to confront IS, however, according to Faysal Itani, a fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. “Iran and Saudi Arabia don’t need to cooperate. It’s a matter of them pursuing separate tracks in their own interests, which may have in common the objective of weakening ISIS,” Itani said. By way of example, Saudi Arabia might share intelligence with the U.S. or help fund the campaign; Iran could pressure Assad to crack down on the Islamic State instead of continuing to play them off against other rebel factions.