September 12-14
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger says that, despite the scary headlines, the Islamic Republic remains a far bigger challenge for the United States than the Islamic State.
Kissinger has just come out with a new book, “World Order,” which takes a look from an historian’s perspective at how global leaders have tried to create order in world affairs dating back to ancient China and imperial Rome.
In an interview with National Public Radio, Kissinger, now 91, was asked how he views Iran as compared with the new caliphate of the Islamic State.
Kissinger said a conflict with the Islamic State is more manageable than a confrontation with Iran.
“There has come into being a kind of a Shia belt from Tehran through Baghdad to Beirut,” Kissinger said. “And this gives Iran the opportunity to reconstruct the ancient Persian Empire — this time under the Shia label — in the rebuilding of the Middle East that will inevitably have to take place when the new international borders [are] drawn—because the borders of the settlement of 1919-20 are essentially collapsing.
“That gives Iran a very powerful level from a strategic point of view. I consider Iran a bigger problem than ISIS. ISIS is a group of adventurers with a very aggressive ideology. But they have to conquer more and more territory before they can became a strategic, permanent reality. I think a conflict with ISIS — important as it is — is more manageable than a confrontation with Iran.”
Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani objected strongly to Kissinger’s assertion that the Islamic Republic wants to reconstitute the old Persian Empire. He called Kiss-inger’s words “a mischievous statement by a fan of Zionism.”
Although Kissinger said the Islamic State is less dangerous than Iran, Larijani oddly said Kissinger’s words reflected the fact that “Westerners are afraid of the Islamic State’s adventures in Iraq and Syria.”
