Obama weighs US action in Iraq

President Barack Obama talking to reporters at the White House yesterday.

Reuters/Washington

President Barack Obama said yesterday he needs several days to determine how the US will help Iraq deal with a militant insurgency, but he ruled out sending US troops back into combat and said any intervention would be contingent on Iraqi leaders becoming more involved.

The Pentagon is preparing a range of options for Obama, including air strikes. The actions are aimed at helping Iraq counter militants in the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, a group Obama described as “vicious” and a “terrorist organisation” that could eventually pose a threat to Americans.

Obama said Iraqi leaders needed to set aside sectarian differences to deal with the threat, and said the US would engage in “intensive diplomacy” in the region to try to prevent the situation from worsening.

“The US is not simply going to involve itself in a military action in the absence of a political plan by the Iraqis that gives us some assurance that they are prepared to work together,” Obama told reporters at the White House.

Obama said he would consult with the US Congress in coming days. His fellow Democrats are reluctant to allow any US engagement in Iraq after the lengthy war, which began with the 2003 US-led invasion to topple President Saddam Hussain.

But Republicans have been critical of the president for what they say has been dithering on Iraq.

“We shouldn’t have boots on the ground, but we need to be hitting these columns of terrorists marching on Baghdad with drones now,” said California Republican Ed Royce, the chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

The US stepped up its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support this week at Baghdad’s request, said Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby. Some surveillance drones have been collecting data on rebel movements.

Kirby declined to explicitly say whether the Pentagon was confident the Iraqi security forces could hold Baghdad.

“We were surprised and disappointed by the poor performance of some Iraqi security force units (that are) up in the north. I’d be less than honest if I said that that performance instilled a lot of confidence. It didn’t,” he said.

Obama said he was concerned that ISIL could try to overrun Shia sacred sites, creating sectarian conflicts “that could be very hard to stamp out”. The Baghdad government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is dominated by Shias.

“This is a regional problem, and it is going to be a long-term problem. And what we’re going to have to do is combine selective actions by our military to make sure that we’re going after terrorists who could harm our personnel overseas or eventually hit the homeland,” Obama said.

Obama said he wanted to review intelligence on the situation in Iraq so that any US actions are “targeted, they are precise, and they are going to have an effect”.

He noted that the US has already “poured a lot of money into these Iraqi security forces”.

Obama was expected to talk to foreign leaders about the situation over the weekend, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters travelling with Obama on Air Force One on a previously scheduled trip to North Dakota. Obama was scheduled to spend the weekend in California.  

China ‘willing to help Iraq any way it can’

 China said yesterday that it was watching security developments in Iraq closely after Islamist fighters captured two more towns in a southward sweep, and offered the Baghdad government whatever help it can give. China is the top foreign player in Iraq’s oilfields, which are the largest in the Middle East open to foreign investment, and has a natural interest in the country’s stability.