On the sidelines of the Brussels meeting, Carter also met with Saudi Defense Minister and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, whose country is also a member of the coalition.
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The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have pledged special operation forces and airstrikes to counter the so-called Islamic State in Syria, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Friday.
“What is needed in the Sunni parts of Iraq is capacity among moderate Sunnis to re-occupy and govern that territory and keep a multi-sectarian Iraq together”, Carter said.
Ambassador to NATO Mark Higgie represented Australia at talks in Brussels involving members of the US-led coalition who endorsed Barack Obama’s revamped strategy to counter IS.
Carter convened the first-ever gathering of defence ministers of the global coalition against ISIL on February 11 in Brussels. He suggested that countries not answering his call to do more may regret their choice when the struggle is over.
Carter and the minister agreed to continue the close communications between their countries, the press secretary said. Five years of civil war have pitted President Bashar Assad’s government, backed by Russian Federation and Iran, against an array of weakened opposition groups, some supported by the United States. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, second left, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, center left, attend the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) meeting in Munich, Germany, Thursday Feb….
Speaking just before the meeting, Carter said the fight to defeat ISIL is a matter of critical importance for all and each contribution matters.
By then, at the latest, the defense secretary said, “we should begin to see tangible gains from those additional capabilities, from the ones that the coalition is already bringing to bear”.
Even if there is consensus on the military plan to fight Islamic State on Thursday, it is unlikely to diminish scepticism about broader US policy in Syria, which has sought to limit America’s role in the civil war. North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ministers “tasked North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military authorities to provide its advice for options for implementing it”, Carter said. Details were to be worked out.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the NATO Maritime Group is being ordered immediately into the Aegean to help end illegal human smuggling of migrants between Turkey and Greece, a situation he called a “human tragedy”.
A senior Russian diplomat says Moscow opposes plans to establish a “safe zone” along the Turkey-Syria border.
However, the agreement to restart the air campaign does not appear to come with extra weapons sales from the US.
The Dutch, who have been carrying out airstrikes in Iraq, were prepared to now extend them in Syria, Mr Carter told reporters. The US representatives hope that, through both methods, peace in Syria can be negotiated and the IS forces now entrenched there driven out.
That follows on a commitment from Saudi Arabia, made Thursday at a major meeting of the anti-ISIS coalition, to similarly restart the air campaign over Syria.
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Sajjan says Canada has set the example of what the mission needs for that region.
