http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2014-10/26/content_33865805.htm

An alternative plan for fighting the Islamic State

By Zhao Jinglun

China.org.cn, October 26, 2014

U.S. President Barack Obama's plan for fighting the Islamic State (IS) is essentially U.S.-led air strikes supporting Iraqi Security Forces and Kurdish militia Peshmerga on the ground. But the Iraqi security forces have proved dysfunctional and the Kurdish forces are not strong enough. So far the plan is not succeeding.

There is an alternative plan: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has proposed to visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi an anti-IS axis including Syria, Lebanon and Iraq that would be led by Iran.

Rouhani's plan partly coincides with the one suggested by Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations. Gelb wrote on Oct. 18: There is only one way to check the Islamic State, and that is for the United States to work with Bashar Assad's Syria and Iran.