government formation is so urgent so that the leaders of iraq can begin to make decisions necessary to protect iraq without outside forces moving to fill a vacuum. >> reporter: but syria and its embattled leader bashar al assad along with iran might have other plans. they have competing interests in iraq and the sects vying for power there. >> it's a kind of strange bedfellows that would probably knife each other under the covers. the fact is that iran wants influence in iraq. it wants effectively as much control over the shiite population as possible. >> the assad group has actually been using islam to basically threaten other groups that threaten the assad regime. >> assad infamously crossed president obama's red line barring the use of chemical weapons and survived when the u.s. opted against air strikes in syria. >> i'm confident we can hold the assad regime accountable for