The Obama administration must rekindle ties to the Arab League for a more coordinated response to extremists overrunning Iraq, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said Sunday.
“We’ve got to re-establish our relationship with our Arab League partners. It’s as damaged as I’ve ever seen it,” Rogers said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
{mosads}He said that’s on the agenda this week for Secretary of State John Kerry, who is trying to win over support from Iraq’s neighbors and U.S. allies overseas.
Kerry met with Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo on Sunday.
Rogers said nations in the Arab League also face the threat from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“Our Arab League partners are as frustrated and nervous about what happens next,” said Rogers, who also suggested the U.S. had previously “walked away” from engaging with them.
Kerry is scheduled to travel this week to Jordan, Belgium and Paris to discuss how to respond to ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Rogers also said ISIS could eventually pour into Jordan.
“It’s not that they may have designs on Jordan, they do have designs on Jordan,” he said.
“Al Qaeda sympathetizers” are already in Jordan, Rogers added, and they don’t support the Hashemite kingdom.
Former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell said he agrees Jordan is at risk, as well as Lebanon.
“I’m also concerned about Lebanon,” he said. “Where ISIS has been quite active over the last several months and just in the last couple of days conducted a bombing there. So they are also focused on Lebanon, which is also fragile, as you know.”
–This report was updated at 1:09 p.m.