President Obama said that the U.S. intelligence community initially underestimated the Islamic State and its stronghold in Syria.
“Jim Clapper has acknowledged that they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria,” Obama said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that will air Sunday night, referencing the director of intelligence, James Clapper.
Obama then said that the U.S. address militant groups that gain strength during civil war and conflicts throughout the Middle East between Sunnis and Shiites.
“This is one of the challenges were going to have generally: when you have states that are failing or in the midst of civil war, these kinds of organizations thrive,” he said. “What we also have to do is come up with political solutions, in Iraq and Syria in particular, but in the Middle East generally, that arise an accommodation between Sunni and Shia populations that right now are the biggest cause of conflict, not just in the Middle East, but in the world.”
