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 U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter is due to start talks on
Thursday afternoon in Brussels with more than two dozen defense
ministers, including from key ally Saudi Arabia, which has held out
the possibility of sending special forces into Syria.
Carter's push came a day after France delivered a rebuke to
President Barack Obama, demanding that Washington display a clearer
commitment to resolving the crisis in Syria where Russia is tipping
the military balance in favor of President Bashar Assad.
The talks take place as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry leads a
diplomatic push in Munich to rescue imperiled peace efforts, which
are taking place despite Russian bombing raids to bolster Syrian
forces around the city of Aleppo.
Carter, speaking to reporters ahead of his talks, sought to draw a
line between military and diplomatic efforts.
 "Our focus here is going to be on counter-ISIL and that campaign
will go on because ISIL must be defeated, will be defeated, whatever
happens with the Syrian civil war," Carter told reporters, using an
acronym for Islamic State.
"But it certainly would help to de-fuel extremism if the Syrian
civil war came to an end."
The United States hopes the face-to-face gathering of coalition
defense ministers will allow it to secure more support for a
military campaign that aims to recapture the Islamic State
strongholds of Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.
WARPLANES, TRAINING, SURVEILLANCE
Carter plans to offer a long list of required military capabilities
-- which, beyond air power, include training Iraqi forces and help
with intelligence and surveillance. Carter said countries that
cannot contribute militarily can help in other ways, like by choking
Islamic State financing.
"This is a terrific opportunity to have the acceleration that the
United States and President Obama has committed to reinforced by all
of the military members of the coalition," Carter said.
Still, Carter and U.S. defense officials have sought to manage
expectations about the talks, since many ministers will not be able
to make new commitments without first winning support from their
parliaments. The timeline for the campaign to retake Raqqa and Mosul
is also unclear.
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The head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency cautioned this week
that Iraqi forces were unlikely to recapture Mosul this year,
despite hopes by Baghdad.
Carter only said securing Raqqa and Mosul needed to happen "as soon
as possible". He also acknowledged the need to grapple with Islamic
State's spread beyond Syria and Iraq.
WASHINGTON FACES SCEPTICISM
Even if there is consensus on the military plan to fight Islamic
State on Thursday, it is unlikely to diminish scepticism about
broader U.S. policy in Syria, which has sought to limit America's
role in the civil war.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Wednesday questioned the
commitment of the United States to resolving the Syrian war. Rebel
groups say that while Washington has put pressure on them to attend
peace talks, they see less help on the battlefield.
NATO ally Turkey has meanwhile, upbraided the United States for
supporting Syrian Kurdish PYD rebels, saying Washington's inability
to understand the group's true nature had turned the region into a
"sea of blood".
Eager to sidestep such friction, NATO allies have focused on
grappling with the humanitarian fallout from Syria's conflict at
talks over the past two days.
NATO announced on Thursday it will seek to help slow refugee flows
through the Aegean Sea with a maritime mission to target criminal
people smuggling networks.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Robin Emmott, additional reporting by
Sabine Seibold, editing by Peter Millership)
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