U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (C) takes his seat to participate in the OSCE Ministerial Council …
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BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – The Islamic State can be defeated within “months” of a ceasefire between Syria’s government and moderate rebels, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday, urging the world to come together behind a peace strategy recently hashed out by the United States, Russia and other countries.
“I think we know it, 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 told delegates a gathering of dozens of foreign ministers in Belgrade.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday that Washington welcomed Russia’s involvement in efforts to end the Syrian conflict, where Moscow could play an “extremely constructive” role.
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.
“I was very gratified that a number of allies are already bringing more to this battle – or are planning to increase their contributions”.
Kerry said Iraqi government is fully briefed on U.S. plans to deploy American special forces to Iraq and the two governments will consult closely on where they will go and what they will do.
He praised British Prime Minister David Cameron, whose Parliament is poised to vote on expanding airstrikes into Syria and Germany, which plans to deploy ships and surveillance aircraft to support operations against ISIL.
“We welcome Russia’s engagement in the Syria process”.
“There are a number of things countries can do”, Kerry told reporters.
The US top diplomat argued that a “political transition” to remove Assad from power in Syria would make it easier to create a broader worldwide coalition- “the Syrian army together with the opposition…together with Russian Federation, the United States and others to go and fight Daesh”.
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Kerry also played down any threat to Russian Federation from North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which announced on Wednesday that it had invited Montenegro to be its 29th member despite warnings from Moscow which opposes North Atlantic Treaty Organisation s expansion eastwards.
