Coalition Of One: Iran Leads Own Fight Against Islamic State

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2014/09/coalition-against-islamic-state.html

Coalition Of One: Iran Leads Own Fight Against Islamic State
By contributors | Sep. 18, 2014
By Charles Recknagel, RFE/RL

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But when the nearly 40-state-strong alliance starts operations, it will find that there is already another coalition on the ground whose presence could complicate the U.S.-led effort in unpredictable ways.

That is a coalition that includes just one state, Iran. But it comprises multiple Tehran-backed regional Shi'ite militias that are already combating the IS jihadists and other Sunni militant groups in Syria and Iraq.

In Syria, the Iranian-backed Lebanese-Shi'ite Hizballah militia is fighting alongside Syrian government troops against rebel groups. That puts the powerful militia on the opposite side of the new U.S.-led coalition, which will back moderate rebels seeking to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a Tehran ally.

In Iraq, Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias are reinforcing the Iraqi Army as it attempts to regain a huge swath of northern and central Iraq lost to IS in June. The Iraqi Shi'ite militias and the new coalition are ostensibly on the same side, as both support Baghdad, but Washington sees the militias as a menace for Iraq because their presence exacerbates the country's already deep sectarian rifts.