Former Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak was interviewed by Russian media outlet RT on Friday.
He stated that it is he belief that the Islamic State “is not strong” and with an appropriate response, it would be possible to suppress and destroy ISIS within a matter of days.
“I think that ISIS is successful to a certain extent because they are not facing a concentrated effort to destroy the organization,” said Barak, adding “Technically they aren’t that strong- they are made up of only about 30-40 thousand people.”
“Basically, what they faced in Ramadi (a town in central Iraq that was occupied by ISIS) and elsewhere in Iraq are armies that don’t want to fight.
When an army doesn’t want to fight, you don’t need much experience to win,” said Barak.
“ISIS has never fought a real battle,” he added.
Islamic State militants said they had taken full control of Ramadi in May in the biggest defeat for the Baghdad government since last summer.
