Kerry told his 27 other counterparts meeting in Brussels that the global coalition must strike at the core of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and strangle its efforts to set up networks elsewhere. Earlier Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivered a tough, unambiguous message, saying the United States expects them to do more in the war against ISIL.
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Some reports say the number of troops involved will be between 100 and 150.
“We have asked for the participation of special forces, of people to provide police training, people to provide ammunition, military assistance, people can provide “enablers” (helpers on the ground)”. The Defense Department said this week that about 200 USA personnel will be deployed to Iraq to conduct specialized operations in Iraq and Syria.
There would be further consultations between Turkish and USA military authorities to ensure that the border could no longer be used to move “illegally transported oil”, a crucial source of funds for the militants, or “the passage of foreign fighters in one direction or another”, Mr Kerry said. The force is separate from a previously announced deployment of up to 50 USA special operations troops in Syria to coordinate on the ground with US-backed rebels. He expressed “full and total respect” for al-Abadi’s leadership, and said plans would go forward “in full consultation and with full consent of the Iraqi government”. But he said an global mediation effort that now includes Assad’s backers – Russian Federation and Iran – recognizes the need to maintain the Syrian state and key services such as health and education.
“We’re not going to do an Iraq-style invasion of Iraq or Syria with battalions that are moving across the desert”, he said in an interview that aired Thursday on CBS Morning News.
He added that Russian Federation and Iran continue to have a different view on Assad.
He didn’t address whether the US might be willing to bring Russian Federation into its military effort against IS, as some members such as France have been proposing. “Whereas the coalition is focused nearly entirely on ISIL”.
The U.S. has spoken generally of degrading and eventually destroying the group.
“I think we know that without the ability to find some ground forces that are prepared to take on Daesh (IS), this will not be won completely from the air”, Kerry said in Serbia at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
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Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin gets a pat on the back from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, before a session on Ukraine at the NATO ministerial meetings at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday Dec. 2, 2015.
