He says the campaign will require local Syrian and Arab ground forces, too.
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Syrian and other Arab ground forces must be found to take on Islamic State, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday, saying the militant group would not be defeated by air strikes alone.
Kerry was in Greece on the final leg of a week-long trip to Europe, where he held a series of talks on the war in Syria and efforts to combat Islamic State militants in their strongholds there. The thinking is that peace between the government and moderates would allow the worldwide community to focus military efforts exclusively on defeating IS, al-Qaida’s Syria affiliate and other extremist groups. Iran, along with Russian Federation, is Assad’s biggest backer.
Diplomats hope to start direct discussions between Syria’s government and the opposition in the next few weeks.
“Just imagine how quickly this scourge could be eliminated, in a matter of literally months, if we were able to secure that kind of political resolution”, Kerry said.
The U.S. has spoken generally of degrading and eventually destroying the group.
US Secretary of State John Kerry takes his seat to participate in the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Belgrade, Serbia December 3, 2015. It will be the first such face-to-face conversation between high-ranking Russian and Turkish officials since the November 24 incident. Russian leader Vladimir Putin referred to his regime as the “legitimate government of Syria” in his annual state of the nation address on Thursday.
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Kerry was asked at a news conference during a visit to Greece whether Assad’s departure was a precondition for Western-backed rebels to cooperate with government troops against IS, which has captured a swathe of Syria and Iraq and carried out a string of attacks in other countries.
