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 Kerry on Monday had hailed the formation of a new, more inclusive,
Iraqi government under Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi as a "major
milestone", and Washington had said it was vital before there could
be further U.S. action to help push back the militants, who took
over large parts of northern Iraq this year.
Kerry flew to Baghdad from Jordan, first stop on the tour that will
include Saudi Arabia and probably other Arab capitals.
Last week nine countries, most of them in Europe, were named as the
core group of a coalition President Barack Obama says will degrade
and destroy Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in the
land it took over and executed many prisoners, including two
American journalists who were beheaded.
In Washington, Obama will give a speech on Wednesday in which he
will detail his plan to confront the militants, which could take
several years.
Two days after Iraq formed a new government, Kerry arrived in
Baghdad to "take it to the next level", as a senior U.S. official
put it, and find a way to defeat Islamic State.
Kerry will meet Abadi, whose government faces multiple crises from
the need to pull Sunni Muslims back from armed revolt to persuading
minority Kurds not to break away and convincing Abadi’s own majority
Shi'ites he can protect them from Sunni hardliners.
His visit comes hours before a speech in which Obama will try to
rally Americans behind another war in a region he has long sought to
leave, backed by what Washington hopes will be a coalition of NATO
and Gulf Arab allies committed to a campaign that could stretch
beyond the end of Obama’s term in 2016.
"We’re now at the stage of beginning to build a broad-based
coalition," a senior U.S. State Department official said. "There is,
of course, military support, and that’s everything from logistics
and intelligence and airlifts and all the things it takes to conduct
an effective military campaign.”
Unlike his predecessor, Abadi enjoys the support of nearly all of
Iraq's major political groups, and the two most influential outside
powers, Iran and the United States.
U.S. officials hope he will present a unified front to weaken
Islamic State, which has seized a third of both Iraq and Syria, and
declared a caliphate.
While it is unclear what steps will be taken to strengthen the Iraqi
army after its collapse in the face of an Islamic State onslaught in
June, the senior U.S. official said tentative plans for a new
National Guard unit, announced by Abadi on Monday, were intended to
deprive Islamic State of safe havens by handing over security to the
provinces.
The new Iraqi National Guard, the U.S. official suggested, was an
evolution from the Awakening movement of Iraqi tribes and urban
units that helped U.S. forces repel al Qaeda in 2007-10.
The U.S. official said the National Guard fighters would receive
state salaries and pensions and be incorporated into "the formal
security structures of the state".
The Awakening paramilitaries also received salaries from the Iraqi
government, but the decision by the Iraqi government to pay salaries
late, renege on promised jobs in the police and a campaign of
arrests of some Awakening leaders, at least once with U.S.
government support, weakened the Sunni community in its ability to
stand up against jihadists.
Two vacant cabinet posts, the Defense and Interior ministries, were
close to being filled, said the U.S. official, who spoke to
reporters traveling with Kerry on condition of anonymity. Abadi
"wanted to have a real consensus around the names, which I think was
a very wise move. And so he’s actually working on that as we speak,"
the official said.
ENTRENCHED SECTARIAN TENSIONS
But while the United States hailed the new government as a
breakthrough, sectarian tensions appeared as entrenched as ever,
possibly worsened by a month of U.S. air strikes on Sunni jihadists.
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While Kurdish and Shi'ite fighters have regained ground, Sunni
Muslims who fled the violence near the northern town of Amerli are
being prevented from returning home and some have had their houses
pillaged and torched. Sunni Arabs are also feeling a backlash in
villages where they used to live alongside Kurds, who accuse them of
collaborating with Islamic State. The fallout risks worsening
grievances that helped Islamic State find support amongst Iraq's
Sunnis and may make it more difficult to convince them to fight the
militants, who portray the U.S. strikes as targeting their minority
sect.
While the U.S. official praised weeks of U.S. air strikes as "highly
precise" and "strategically effective", he acknowledged much work
lay ahead. "It’s going to be a very difficult, long road to get
there," he said.
Any campaign to defeat Islamic State could take one to three years,
Kerry said.
Kerry will meet Jordan’s King Abdullah later on Wednesday, and
travel on Thursday to Saudi Arabia for talks that will include
Egypt, Turkey, Jordan and the six-country Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC), which comprises Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab
Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar.
Saudi Arabia is unnerved by the rapid advance of Islamic State and
fears it could radicalize some of its own citizens and lead to
attacks on the U.S.-allied government. Arab League foreign ministers
agreed on Sunday to take all necessary measures to confront Islamic
State.
Obama wants Gulf Arab states to crack down on the flow of money and
foreign fighters to Islamic State, consider military action and
support to Sunni Muslim moderates in Iraq and Syria, possibly
through direct funds.
But while Saudi leaders have said they want to stabilize Iraq, they
also fear the fight against Islamic State could hasten U.S.-Iranian
detente. The battle to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,
an ally of Riyadh's foe Shi'ite Iran, is seen as pivotal to their
own future.
Riyadh fears that if Assad survives, Tehran will expand its
influence across the region and encircle the kingdom. Saudi Arabia
and Iran back opposing sides in wars and political struggles in
Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and Yemen.
In Jordan, Kerry is expected to receive requests for extra military
aid, including helicopters and border security equipment, along with
part of the $500 million the Obama administration has proposed to
accelerate training of moderate Syrian rebels, a Jordanian official
told Reuters.
Jordan is considered a top choice to host the training of the rebels
due its close security relationship with Washington, proximity to
neighboring Syria and pool of more than 600,000 Syrian refugees.
Jordan, however, fears retaliation from Syria if its territory is
used for overt training.
Jordan already hosts a small and ostensibly covert effort by the CIA
to equip and train small groups of Assad's opponents.
(Additional reporting by Isabel Coles in Arbil, Suleiman Al-Khalidi
in Amman and Angus McDowall in Riyadh; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
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