Defense ministers from six coalition members met earlier this week in Paris to discuss the campaign, but Carter will soon meet with approximately two-dozen military chiefs from the group of approximately 60 nations assembled to fight the militants, where he is expected to push members to contribute more to the fight.
Advertisement
“Because Daesh is retreating on the ground and… because we have been able to hit its resources, it’s now time to increase our collective effort by putting in place a coherent military strategy”, he said.
Le Drian said the group’s finances were “beginning to dry up”.
The jihadist group lost control of the western Iraqi city of Ramadi in December 2015, in a sorely needed victory for U.S.-backed Iraqi forces.
That’s because it reinforces the idea that neither the White House nor Republicans have a clear strategy, says Anthony Cordesman, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Carter also announced that the 26 nations in the anti-IS coalition, as well as Iraq, will meet in Brussels next month to continue the talks.
But the coalition must also face up to the spread of Isis around the world, notably in Libya where political chaos has allowed the group to build a 3,000-strong force.
In addition to Ramadi, Iraqi forces have seized ground from the Islamic State in Beiji, an oil refining region north of Baghdad, and Sinjar in northern Iraq.
Carter has repeatedly urged other countries in the approximately 60-member coalition to step up participation in the military effort, particularly Arab and Gulf countries that are more focused on fighting Iran-backed forces in Yemen.
“Turkey occupies a key position in the coalition – it is hosting aircraft and making other contributions”, Carter told reporters in Paris, where he has been meeting defence ministers from several countries involved in the anti-IS coalition.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey was determined to dislodge IS jihadists fully from the Syrian border, which analysts says they have controlled for much of past year.
He was speaking in Paris ahead of a meeting with U.S. defence secretary Ash Carter and counterparts from France, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands and Italy.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss publicly the private conversation.
He also said that the US’ allies in the fight against Daesh “can do more”, adding that the terrorist group needs to be defeated in the Iraqi Mosul and it’s so-called capital in Syria’s Raqqa. “It is for that reason that we have agreed to organise this larger meeting in a few weeks”, Mr Carter explained.
Advertisement
The policy shift is a turnaround from the Obama’s White House’s previous stance of not deploying combat troops in Iraq and one sure to shape the foreign policy debate in the 2016 election.
