Sanders: Muslim Nations Should Battle Daesh on the Ground

In an interview with CNN’s host Jake Tapper, the Democratic Party presidential hopeful said that it should be Muslim nations that carry out a ground offensive against the “barbaric” Daesh militant group in the Middle East. Countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Russia should only provide additional support in this struggle, he added.

“I agree with King Abdullah of Jordan, who said many months ago that the fight going on there is a fight for the soul of Islam. And at the end of the day, it will be Muslim troops on the ground,” Sanders claimed on the program State of the Union.

Despite terrorist bombing in Brussels, Sanders underscored that Daesh is now losing its position in the ongoing war.

“We are making in the military field real progress. ISIS is on the defensive. They are retreating. They have lost 30 to 40 percent of territories they held in Iraq,” he said, stressing that everything possible should be done to destroy radicals.

At the same time Sanders pointed out that intelligence sharing between Americans and their allies must be improved in the face of threats from terrorists “who are planning [attacks] against our European allies and against ourselves.”

“When 30 people get killed in Brussels, something went wrong… We have got to improve our efforts to make sure it does not happen again," he said.

Three coordinated bombings occurred in the Belgium’s capital on March 22. Two of them happened at Brussels Airport, and one at the city’s Maalbeek metro station.