“The last thing in the world you want”, Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday, “is a false caliphate with access to billions of dollars of oil revenue”.
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US President Barack Obama has told British Prime Minister David Cameron that the US will soon make “significant new contributions” to support relief efforts in Syria and help in dealing with the crisis that has burdened Europe with a record number of refugees.
President Obama is being pressed by some of his top national security aides to approve the use of US military power in Libya to open up another front against the Islamic State. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter also warned that IS militants were consolidating there by establishing training sites, attracting foreign recruits and raising tax money.
Obama and Cameron also discussed Libya, where nations are struggling to determine how to address the Islamic State militant group’s expansion.
Previous U.S. estimates for Iraq and Syria in the past year have been that ISIS has remained constant at between 20,000 and 30,000, with a peak of 33,000, according to a Defense Department official.
European countries, too, are weighing options, and Kerry won support from the meeting’s host, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni.
The U.S. instead is focused on enlisting individual countries – primarily in Europe – to join the U.S.in taking action in Libya. “And they’re trying to take over the reins of the economy and tax it the way you see ISIL doing – you see the same kind of ambitions on their part that you see realized in full flower in Syria and Iraq”.
The increasing ISIS presence in Libya has drawn increasing concern from American security officials. France and Britain seem to have similar reservations.
The number of ISIS fighters in Libya was previously estimated at 2,000 to 3,000, the official said, speculating that there might be a correlation between the new ISIS estimates in Iraq/Syria and Libya as it’s getting harder for foreign fighters to get into Syria and that they may be diverting to Libya as a result.
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Neither outlined any new military steps from any coalition member, and there was no indication when the fight would move to the key Iraqi city of Mosul or the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa, Syria.
