AFP
The world’s top diplomats yesterday pledged to support Iraq in its fight against Islamic State militants by “any means necessary”, including “appropriate military assistance”, as leaders stressed the urgency of the crisis.
Representatives from around 30 countries and international organisations, including the US, Russia and China, gathered in Paris as the savage beheading at the weekend of a third Western hostage raised the stakes in the battle against the militants.
In a joint statement, diplomats vowed to support Baghdad “by any means necessary, including appropriate military assistance, in line with the needs expressed by the Iraqi authorities, in accordance with international law and without jeopardising civilian security”.
They stressed that IS extremists were “a threat not only to Iraq but also to the entire international community” and underscored the “urgent need” to remove them from Iraq, where they control some 40% of the territory.
However, the statement made no mention of Syria, where extremists hold a quarter of the country and where Bashar al-Assad’s regime still had friends around the Paris conference table, including Russia.
Opening the conference, French President Francois Hollande said there was “no time to lose” in the fight against the militants.
“The fight of the Iraqis against terrorism is our fight as well,” Hollande said, urging “clear, loyal and strong” global support for Baghdad.
Co-hosting the meeting, Iraqi President Fuad Masum warned that the militants could overrun more countries in the region.
“We are still asking for regular aerial operations against terrorist sites. We have to pursue them wherever they are. We need to dry up their sources of finance,” the Iraqi leader said.
The international community is scrambling to contain the IS militants - who have rampaged across Iraq and Syria and could number as many as 31,500 fighters, according to the CIA.
In Iraq yesterday, sporadic clashes broke out near the town of Dhuluiyah, north of Baghdad, where security forces and allied tribesmen prepared for an operation against IS-led militants.
The area would appear to be the target of the next major drive against IS in Iraq, after a successful operation to break the siege of the town of Amerli farther north.
As if to stress the urgency of the campaign against IS, France’s defence minister announced just hours ahead of the conference that Paris was joining Britain in carrying out reconnaissance flights in support of the US air campaign.
Shortly afterwards, two French Rafale fighter jets took off from the Al-Dhafra base in the United Arab Emirates.
And in Brussels, Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged military action, calling IS “a group of terrorists with whom there is no chance whatsoever to negotiate”.
The meeting was the latest in a series of frantic diplomatic efforts to build a broad global coalition against the IS militants, and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said meetings would come “thick and fast” ahead of a UN General Assembly next week.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been criss-crossing the region to drum up support, said at the weekend that “all bases were covered” in terms of implementing the US strategy to destroy the militants.
Ten Arab states, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, are among the countries backing the coalition, and Australia has pledged 600 troops.
“We are not building a military coalition for an invasion... but for a transformation as well as for the elimination of ISIL,” Kerry told reporters, using an alternative name for IS.
“We are fighting an ideology, not a regime.”
