In an interview with National Public Radio, the former top diplomat said that „ISIS is a group of adventurers with a very aggressive ideology. But they have to conquer more and more territory before they can become a strategic, permanent reality.“ Iran, on the hand, has the opportunity to „reconstruct the ancient Persian Empire, this time under the Shia label — in the rebuilding of the Middle East that will inevitably have to take place when the new international borders [are] drawn.“