A few weeks after the US started air-strikes against Islamic State-held territories northern Iraq, Washington has begun intensifying its endeavours to get allies to join its battle against the militant group.
As the American operation allowed Kurdish and Iraqi forces to make advances against the jihadists, the US Secretary of State John Kerry started lobbying Thursday at a ministerial meeting at NATO's Wales's summit.
"We're convinced that in the days ahead we have the ability to destroy IS,” AFP reported Kerry as saying.
"There are many ways in which we can train, advise, assist, and equip," he said, urging those present to consider what they would be willing to contribute ahead of a UN General Assembly meeting later this month.
US President Barack Obama "is totally committed. There is a strategy that is clear, becoming more clear by the day" Kerry said.
"We need to attack them in ways that prevent them from taking over territory, that bolster the Iraqi security forces (and) others in the region who are prepared to take them on, without committing troops of our own."
A day later Obama said that NATO members agree that the Islamic State is a "savage organisation" that must ultimately be destroyed, reported AP.
Speaking on Friday in Wales he said that the international coalition needs to go beyond Western countries and include Sunni majority states, to reject the kind of nihilism that the Islamic State projects.
"I leave here confident that NATO allies and partners are prepared to join in a broad, international coalition," he said, adding that Kerry would travel to the Middle East for talks to include regional powers.
Obama said the United States would try to involve Middle Eastern allies in a strategy to counter the jihadists, who have overrun large swathes of territory. The president said regional involvement was "absolutely critical" -- although the State Department said Washington had "no plans" for any military coordination with Iran in the fight.
AFP quoted Barack Obama vowing that the extremists from Islamic State would ultimately be defeated and its fighters "hunted down" like Al-Qaeda members.
"It's not going to happen overnight, but we are steadily moving in the right direction. And we're going to achieve our goal. We're going to degrade and ultimately defeat" the Islamic State, Obama said.
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