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US mulls how best to control pro-Iran factions in Mideast

The United States and the Gulf states seem to agree that Tehran and its allies need to be contained to keep Iran from aggressively expanding once the Islamic State is driven out of the region.
US ambassador to Iraq Stuart E. Jones (R) delivers a speech in the presence of Iraqi Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Adel Fahad Shershab, at Iraq's National Museum during a ceremony where looted artefacts recovered by the US military during a recent raid in Syria are handed back to the Iraqi authorities, in the capital Baghdad, on July 15, 2015. AFP PHOTO / SABAH ARAR.
        (Photo credit should read SABAH ARAR/AFP/Getty Images)

BAGHDAD — As the administration of US President Donald Trump looks ahead to a post-Islamic State (IS) status in the Middle East, it is clear there are concerns over the potential military role the armed organizations backed by Iran could play.

Stuart Jones, the top US diplomat for the Middle East, recently told the Associated Press the United States “is still forming a ‘comprehensive Iran policy’ that addresses Iran's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and militant groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.”

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