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Press TV has conducted an interview with Nabil Mikhail, professor at George Washington University from Washington, about Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil calling for the support of all domestic parties and the international community to fight ISIL Takfiri militants.

Press TV: Professor Mikhail, quite a direct statement, if I may call that, by the Lebanese foreign minister essentially saying that the region needs to unite in the face of this ISIL threat. Do you believe that that will happen though?

Mikhail: I believe in what he said. He was totally correct. ISIL is now not a national problem. It is a regional crisis and it could be a global crisis.

So his analysis is right but how can he help materialize his idea? I think if nations in the Middle East articulate their own national interest. I think they can join together to fight ISIL, because ISIL is really a dangerous entity that is moving fast. It could be defeated and it could actually drag the whole area in a long-term conflict exhausting its resources.

So yes the region leaders can talk; can address this threat. So there has to be a political will, a strategy and let basically the resources of the nations in the area fight, not foreign powers. I believe his diagnosis is right and I perceive also someway from his statement that ISIL could be defeated because he thinks that if nations cooperate, they can basically execute a successful policy. So he is right.

Press TV: Many people have accused various Persian Gulf countries especially of the fact that ISIL even came about because in many private donors - if I may call them that - from many of these countries essentially started off ISIL with their money if not even some support from some of their governments.

But have they essentially created a monster which is now out of control? Are they willing to address what they may have created themselves?

Mikhail: You are right, they created a monster but I think it is still controllable because ISIL cannot fight nation states.

I mean this is a basic concept in military sciences. Guerrillas are not bigger than nations’ revolutionary movements. Radical movements cannot overcome or defeat regular armies. The military establishments in many countries - Iraq can defeat ISIL, but just help Iraq do it. So the monster can be controlled. Iraq can fulfill all of its aspirations to become a unified nation, no difference between Muslim, Christian, no difference between Shias and Sunnis so help mobilize the resources of a country like Iraq.

They can defeat ISIL. This way you will not need a foreign nation or a foreign power to bomb ISIL locations. They have the logistics. They have the technology. They have the fighting ethos.

So help the nation states fight ISIL. This is a simple message.