Bolton says US should make new Sunni state out of Iraq, Syria

Former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton says his country should make a new Sunni country from the current fighting in Iraq and Syria.

“I think our objective should be a new Sunni state out of the western part of Iraq, the eastern part of Syria run by moderates or at least authoritarians who are not radical Islamists,” Bolton told Fox News.

The Republican foreign policy hand also attacked President Barack Obama for his policy in fighting against the ISIL terrorist group.

“We are losing, there’s no doubt about it,” Bolton said on Sunday.

He said the Obama administration has been “in denial about the war on terror for the last six-plus years.”

“I think they’re blinded by their own ideology,” he continued. “They think this will inevitably lead to our involvement overseas.”

Bolton also called on the United States to help Turkey and the Arab states to destroy ISIL, saying those countries need “American leadership.”

“The Arab states and the Turks can’t do it alone,” he said. “It’s wrong to say, ‘It’s their problem, let them deal with it.’”

Washington and its regional allies have been conducting airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq and Syria since last year. However, the terror network is controlling large parts of the two countries.

Last week, ISIL took control of the major Iraqi city of Ramadi, which is near the capital.

On Sunday, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter blamed the Iraqi military for the fall of Ramadi, saying that Iraqi forces had no will to fight ISIL.

"What apparently happened was that the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight," Carter told CNN.

Carter also noted that the Pentagon can give the Iraqis training and equipment, but not "the will to fight."

Meanwhile, Iraq's ex-national security advisor Mowaffak al-Rubaie criticized the US-led airstrikes against ISIL as ineffective.

He told Press TV that most of the warplanes return to their bases without engaging terrorist targets.

Rubaie also urged Washington to immediately deliver the weapons and military hardware that Baghdad has paid for.