NEWPORT, WALES // US president Barack Obama said Nato allies were prepared to join military action to battle Islamist extremists who have overrun large parts of Iraq and Syria, and urged Arab states to engage in the fight.
“There was unanimity over the last two days that ISIL poses a significant threat to Nato members, and there was a recognition that we have to take action,” Mr Obama said at the close of the annual summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
“You can’t contain ISIL … the goal has to be to dismantle them,” he said.
“Key Nato allies stand ready to confront this terrorist threat through military, intelligence and law enforcement as well as diplomatic efforts,” Mr Obama said after ministers of 10 nations met on the sidelines of the summit to form what Washington called a “core coalition”.
The 10-nation meeting was cochaired by the British foreign scretary Philip Hammond and the US secretary of state John Kerry.
“We’re convinced that in the days ahead we have the ability to destroy ISIL,” Mr Kerry said in his opening remarks.
“It may take a year, it may take two years, it may take three years. But we’re determined it has to happen.
“There is no containment policy for ISIL ... leaving them in some capacity intact anywhere would leave a cancer in place that will ultimately come back to haunt us.”
Besides the US and the UK, the meeting was attended by the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Canada, Poland, Denmark and Australia, which although it is not a Nato member, has participated in alliance operations in Afghanistan.
Mr Kerry said the rise of ISIL offered the chance to show that Nato was able to pull together and form a coalition of “the willing and the capable” to combat the threat. He called for plans to be drafted in time for the United Nations General Assembly meeting this month.
Mr Obama said it was “absolutely critical” that Arab states in the region, particularly those with Sunni majorities, took part in the fight against ISIL.
US allies the UAE and Saudi Arabia have both warned of the dangers posed by extremist groups such as ISIL and called for an international effort to defeat them.
Ahead of the Nato summit, the UAE said a clear strategy was needed and that only through a “unified effort will it be possible to combat terrorist groups”.
Mr Kerry, the US secretary of defence Chuck Hagel and Lisa Monaco, Mr Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, are all heading to the Middle East in the coming days in an effort to seek regional commitments to fight ISIL.
Mr Obama and his defence, diplomatic and counterterrorism officials have spent the week lobbying and pressing European leaders to create an organised effort against the group, which has captured territory from Syria south to the outskirts of Baghdad.
While Nato leaders in Wales have come forward with political pledges, members such as France and Britain, which have discussed joining US air strikes, made no promises of warplanes, according to officials from both countries.
“Clearly military commitment is required and what I’ve said is nothing is ruled out,” the British prime minister David Cameron said. On further military action, he added: “We’re not at that stage yet.”
President Francois Hollande said France was prepared to take lawful action if requested by Iraq, though he baulked at spelling out what the government in Paris would do.
“France will assume its responsibilities,” Mr Hollande said after the summit.
All of the allies have ruled out sending combat troops into Iraq, where the US-led 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein prompted a bloody civil war.
They have linked further aid to the creation of an inclusive government in Baghdad.
The US has carried out more than 100 airstrikes against ISIL positions since last month, allowing Kurdish forces and the national Iraqi army to retake some territory.
France and the UK have air-dropped humanitarian supplies to stranded civilians fleeing the militants’ advance, and have delivered weapons to Kurdish forces. Germany and Italy have said they will deliver weapons to the Kurds.
While US airstrikes in support of Iraqi and Kurdish forces have helped reverse the Sunni extremist group’s gains in Iraq, Mr Obama again indicated he had no immediate plans to extend the fight into Syria, where the militants also are seeking to overthrow the regime of Bashar Al Assad.
* Bloomberg News with additional reporting by Reuters
