This Wednesday, Iran experienced its first-ever attack from the Islamic State when militants stormed Tehran’s parliament building and the shrine of the country’s first Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, killing a total of 17 people. While some see the attack as a disturbing milestone for the Islamic State, California GOP Senator Dana Rohrabacher thinks it’s a great thing.
During a House hearing on Thursday, Rohrabacher referred to the attack as a “good thing” and even proposed an alliance between the Islamic State and the U.S.
“We have recently seen an attack on Iran, and the Iranian government, the mullahs, believe that Sunni forces have attacked them,” Rohrabacher said. “This may signal a ratcheting up of certain commitments by the United States of America.”
According to Rohrabacher, the Iranian threat is more urgent than ISIS — so much so that he thinks the U.S. should align itself with the militants against Iran.
“…isn’t it a good thing for us to have the United States finally backing up Sunnis who will attack Hezbollah and the Shiite threat to us? Isn’t that a good thing?” he continued. “And if so, maybe this is a Trump — maybe it’s a Trump strategy of actually supporting one group against another, considering that you have two terrorist organizations.”
His comments were immediately refuted by intelligence expert Matthew Levitt.
“Those attacks were claimed by the Islamic State,” Levitt replied. “It’s never in our interest to support a terrorist group like the Islamic State. We should condemn the attacks in Tehran, as we would condemn any act of terrorism, even as we hold Iran accountable for its sponsorship of terrorism.”
But Rohrabacher was having none of it.
“So that’s like Joe Stalin was a horrible guy, we must never associate with horrible guys like that, even against Hitler,” he said, interrupting Levitt. “And so maybe it’s a good idea to have radical Muslim terrorists fighting each other. I’ll leave it at that.”
From Adrienne Mahsa Varian of Think Progress:
It’s no surprise that Rohrabacher is so anti-Iran he is willing to praise the Islamic State for conducting an attack in the country. The congressman is a vocal supporter of regime change as well as a huge advocate of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a cult-like group known for human rights abuseswhich wants to overthrow the Iranian government and which was classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government until 2012.
Rohrabacher, who has been has been previously called “Putin’s favorite congressman,” has also brushed off human rights abuses by the Russian government, calling them “baloney.”
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Featured image via screen grab
