![US Special Representative for Syria James Jeffrey answers questions at House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, şn Washington, United States on 22 May 2019. [Yasin Öztürk - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/20190522_2_36575777_44711175-e1558556923348.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
US Special Envoy for Syria James Jeffrey on Saturday dubbed Iran as the “biggest challenge”, Anadolu Agency reports.
“The Trump administration has made it very clear that it is taking a very strong position on pushing back on Iran,” Jeffrey told a small group of journalists in Istanbul on Saturday.
“The biggest challenge at the moment is, of course, Iran. Because Daesh, […] the territorial Caliphate has been destroyed,” he added.
“But Daesh poses very serious risks to Iraq […] and considerable threat to Syria. Not so much in the northeast where we are, but to the south of the Euphrates River. We’re very concerned about Daesh,” he added.
READ: Iraq officially asks US to initiate troop withdrawal
Last week, General Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) elite Quds Force, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad.
His death marked a dramatic escalation in tensions between the US and Iran, which have often been at a fever pitch since President Donald Trump chose in 2018 to unilaterally withdraw Washington from a 2015 nuclear pact world powers struck with Tehran.
Earlier this week, Iran’s IRGC launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against US military and coalition forces in Iraq.