Iran: 'US Is Seeking an Iraq Under Its Hegemony'

Iran: 'US Is Seeking an Iraq Under Its Hegemony'

As militant violence continues to spread across Iraq, Obama says ISIS poses "medium and long-term threat" to the American people.

- Andrea Germanos, staff writer

News agencies are reporting Sunday that Sunni militant forces in Iraq have now taken two border crossings as well as four towns in the violence-gripped country.

The claims that ISIL seized one crossing along the Jordan border and another along the Syrian border were made by anonymous Iraqi military officials.

The seizures follow the falls of the towns of Qaim, Rawah, Ana and Rutba since Friday.

"They took Ana and Rawa this morning without a fight," Reuters reports an Iraqi military intelligence official as saying.

In an interview with CBS' Face the Nation, which aired in part on Sunday, President Obama said ISIS posed a "medium and long-term threat" to the American people.

"Right now, the problem with ISIS is the fact that they are destabilizing the country, that could spill over into some of our allies like Jordan," Obama said. But ISIS is just one of the organizations that the U.S. "must stay focused on," Obama said, adding the continued U.S. focus on al Qaeda in Yemen, also mentioning groups like Boko Haram.

Iran, meanwhile, has condemned U.S. meddling in Iraq.

"We are strongly opposed to U.S. and other intervention in Iraq," IRNA news agencyquoted Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying. "We don’t approve of it as we believe the Iraqi government, nation and religious authorities are capable of ending the sedition."

"American authorities are trying to portray this as a sectarian war, but what is happening in Iraq is not a war between Shi'ites and Sunnis," he said. "The U.S. is seeking an Iraq under its hegemony and ruled by its stooges."

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