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 U.S. officials have cast the campaign against Islamic State as a
global fight against Islamist radicals and the threat they pose
beyond Syria and Iraq, particularly through foreign fighters drawn
from nearly all points of the planet.
While Washington has not identified specific threats within the
United States, U.S. officials say they believe its fighters could
return to home countries and carry out attacks. The beheading of two
captive American journalists in the past month has also enraged many
Americans who want Obama to retaliate.
In a strong measure of support, Saudi Arabia has agreed to host
training camps for moderate Syrian rebels who are part of Obama's
broad strategy to combat the militants, who have taken over a third
of both Syria and Iraq, U.S. officials said.
The agreement, outlined by Obama's aides on the night of his speech
laying out his expanded campaign against the Islamist group,
appeared to reflect the depth of Saudi concern about Islamic State's
threat to the region.
Detailing what Kerry would seek from regional partners at a meeting
of Arab powers and Turkey in Jeddah, a senior State Department
official said: "We may need enhanced basing and overflights ...
there’s going to be a meeting soon of defense ministers to work on
these details."
Wider overflight permission from regional states would increase the
capacity of U.S. aircraft to attack anti-aircraft weaponry operated
by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and if deemed necessary impose a
no-fly zone.
Saudi Arabia, the richest Sunni Arab country, this year outlawed
Islamic State as an extremist organization, but it is worried that
the focus on the group will distract from what it sees as a bigger
regional threat stemming from Shi'ite Iran.
The conservative Islamic kingdom has long pressed the United States
to take a bigger role in aiding moderate Syrian rebels, whom it sees
as the best hope of tackling both Islamic State and the regional
ambitions of Tehran, Riyadh's regional rival.
In a possible reflection of the Saudi-Iranian struggle for influence
in the region, the Islamic Republic criticized the emerging
coalition, saying some of its members backed “terrorists” in Iraq
and Syria, an apparent reference to several Gulf Arab states
including Riyadh who back Syrian rebel groups.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham, speaking on state
television about the U.S.-led alliance, said there were "severe
misgivings about its determination to sincerely fight the root
causes of terrorism".
She made no mention of a prime-time speech on Wednesday in which
President Barack Obama announced he had authorized stepped-up U.S.
air strikes in Iraq and would for the first time extend the aerial
assault into Syria.
Obama also vowed to beef up support for moderate rebels fighting to
overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Also on Wednesday, in Baghdad, Kerry endorsed Iraqi Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi's plans to mend Baghdad's ties with Sunnis and
Kurds, and said Abadi's new Shi'ite-led government was "the heart
and backbone" of the fight against Islamic State.
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Kerry, on a tour of the Middle East to build military, political and
financial support to defeat the militants, said "a new and inclusive
Iraqi government has to be the engine of our global strategy against
ISIL." Kerry arrived in Jeddah, the summer seat of the Saudi
government, to seek support for a number of initiatives that
Washington hopes will undermine the militants.
The initiatives include efforts to stop the flow of money to the
group by tackling oil smuggling and cracking down on contributions
from private donors, the senior U.S. State Department official told
reporters traveling with Kerry.
MILITARY CAMPAIGN
In the Jeddah talks, Kerry will urge regional television news
outlets, specifically Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, to air
anti-extremist messages, said the senior U.S. official.
"They need to get at the clerics because the clerics can get at the
mosques in the neighborhood and they have to expose ISIL for what it
is," the official told reporters.
Saudi Arabia is pivotal, say U.S. officials, because of its regional
stature and influence with Sunni Arabs.
The White House says it will target the group's "leadership,
logistical and operational capability," and attempt to "deny it
sanctuary and resources to plan, prepare and execute attacks.”
Saudi Arabia's senior clergy have been attacking Islamic State and
al Qaeda over the past month, denouncing the militant groups as
heretical and saying it is forbidden to support them.
U.S. officials said a critical component of the plan to train and
equip the Syrian insurgents, who have received only modest American
backing so far and have failed to coalesce into a potent fighting
force, was the Saudis' willingness to allow use of their territory
for the U.S. training effort.
UAE ambassador Yousef al Oteiba, writing in the Wall Street Journal,
said his country was ready to join what he termed a coordinated
international response that should to be waged not only on the
battlefield but also against militant ideology.
(Additional reporting by Angus McDowall and Parisa Hafezi,; Editing
by William Maclean, Dominic Evans and Anna Willard)
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