President Barack Obama on Friday discussed Iraqi crisis and his
decision to order airstrikes against Islamic State positions near Erbil with
the New York Times columnist Tom Friedman. Obama also spoke of
difficulties to strike a deal with Iran over its nuclear program and foreign
policy issues, saying some “Islamic Leaders” may fear a pact would loosen their
grip on power, clearly referring to Iran’s supreme leader and his close
associates.
Below are excerpts from a New York Times article on Friedman's interview with Obama. To read the article, please click here.
Below are excerpts from a New York Times article on Friedman's interview with Obama. To read the article, please click here.
- “(President Obama) was open to supporting a sustained effort to drive Sunni militants out of Iraq if Iraqi leaders form a more inclusive government, even as he vowed that the United States had no intention of ‘being the Iraqi air force.’”
- “He ordered American fighter pilots back into the skies over Iraq, a decision that he said he reached after concluding that the United States needed to protect the Kurdish regions in the north and ‘bolster’ an Iraqi leadership that was panicked in the face of advances by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.”
- ‘‘We’re not going to let them create some caliphate through Syria and Iraq,’ the president said… ‘But we can only do that if we know that we have got partners on the ground who are capable of filling the void.’”
- “On Iran, the president said the chance that American efforts to strike a deal nuclear weapons is ‘a little less than 50-50,’ in part because some Islamic leaders may fear such a pact would loosen their grip on power.’”
- “‘That may prevent us from getting a deal done… ‘It is there to be had. Whether ultimately Iran can seize that opportunity — we will have to wait and see, but it is not for lack of trying on our part.’”
