McCain: ‘Immoral’ to ask Iran’s help against ISIS

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in a Monday night interview that it was “immoral” for President Obama to ask Iran for help in the fight with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

McCain said cooperation with Iran against ISIS is wrong, since Tehran also backs the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad against the moderate rebels the U.S. is seeking to help.

“We’re now supposedly training about 5,000 or more Syrians who are going to go back in and fight against Bashar Assad. Who is it that’s killing them? It is barrel bombs and equipment supplied by the Iranians,” he said on Fox News.

{mosads}McCain is expected to become chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, a position he would likely use to question the president’s strategy against ISIS.

He pointed out Iran also supports the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has sent fighters into Syria to help Assad regime combat the rebels.

“So, we’re supposed to send them in to fight Bashar Assad, while we are playing footsie and getting in bed with the Iranians,” McCain said.

“And for us to somehow believe that we can cooperate with probably our greatest enemy when you look at outright enemies on Earth, to me, is both naive, cynical and frankly immoral,” he said.

In a secret letter revealed last week, President Obama told Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that the U.S. and Iran had a shared interest in fighting ISIS, but that was dependent upon Iran agreeing to a comprehensive nuclear agreement.

The letter appeared to go against U.S. denials there was any cooperation with Iran against the group, despite Tehran sending commanders to Iraq to fight ISIS.