Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said the Obama administration currently has “competing objectives” in their Middle East policy.
Schiff said, “We’re in a very dangerous place, certainly in Yemen. I think there is a real prospect of civil war here. It is probably unlikely that these airstrikes alone are going to be sufficient to repel the Houthis. The best hope goes back to negotiating table. If the Houthis start launching scud missiles into Saudi Arabia then you are going to see ground war there’s no telling where that ends up.”
“In Yemen we ought to be concerned what happens there. In the chaos that is going on right now, al Qaeda in the Arabian the peninsula AQAP is the most lethal franchise of al Qaeda, has chance to grow. That is a real threat to us. We were talking about aircraft earlier on the program, they have been building these bombs that can get past our metal detectors have made repeated attempts to blow up our aircraft. Giving them any opportunity to grow is very important to stop which means we have very acute interest in Yemen.”
“Also see in places like Tikrit, they are coming together, we have couple competing objectives that we defeat ISIS because they pose to our homeland,” he continued. “We don’t want if see Iranian increase by making Iraq some kind of a vast state of Tehran. Those goals are somewhat in conflict. Complementary in part because we’re trying to defeat ISIS at the same time, this heavy reliance on these Iranian backed Shia militia is concern.” he added.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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