U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinner
IN PHOTO: U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinner in Washington September 27, 2014. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

U.S. President Barack Obama said that he had underestimated the Islamic State. He also said that the United States had overestimated the capabilities of the Iraqi army as well.

Obama was interviewed on CBS' "60 Minutes" where he expressed his views about the present U.S. mission in the Middle East. While the interview is going to air later on Sunday, the channel published excerpts of Obama's interview in advance. When the U.S. president was asked why the Islamic State managed to have such a strong control in Iraq and Syria, Obama said that U.S., with the help of Sunni tribes, forces could outsmart al-Qaida militants, Huffington Post reported. "During the chaos of the Syrian civil war, where essentially you have huge swaths of the country that are completely ungoverned, they were able to reconstitute themselves and take advantage of that chaos," he said.

President Obama said that Jim Clapper, the director of U.S. national intelligence, acknowledged that it had underestimated the political situation in Syria. At the same time, Obama said that Syria was the "ground zero" for all the jihadis around the planet. He also said that the military force was needed to deprive the militant forces in Syria of the supply of foreign fighters and financing. The capabilities of the extremist forces should also be shrunk, he said. In addition to the military intervention, the Middle East requires political solutions as well, Obama said. The Muslim region should be able to accommodate both Shia and Sunni communities together. Obama emphasised that the battle between two of the major Islamic sects was the biggest reason behind conflicts worldwide. Politico reported that the United States battled al-Qaida in Iraq "alongside" Sunnis.

The American president called Syria as a "completely ungoverned" nation. "Essentially, you had huge swaths of the country that are completely ungoverned; they were able to reconstitute themselves and take advantage of that chaos," he said. He also said that the Islamic State had taken advantage of the political "chaos" in the Middle East and attracted foreign supporters "who believed in their jihadist nonsense and travelled everywhere from Europe to the United States to Australia to other parts of the Muslim world, converging on Syria."

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au