• Military
• WMD
• Intelligence

• Security Menu                     

• Systems
• Industry
• Operations
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Space

In Saudi Arabia, Kerry Seeks Anti-Islamic State Coalition

by Scott Stearns September 11, 2014

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Saudi Arabia to meet with Arab leaders to form an international coalition against Islamic State militants. Kerry is following up on President Barack Obama's push to 'degrade and destroy' the group in both Iraq and Syria.

The Saudis, who are hosting the meetings with regional leaders, are key to this coalition because of their country's geographic size, location and economic importance, 'but also because of their religious significance with Sunnis,' according to a senior State Department official at the talks.

Overcoming the Sunni/Shi'ite divide in the region, and within Iraq, is a big part of making this coalition work, as Islamic State fighters are predominantly Sunni and the new government in Baghdad is led by a Shi'ite backed by Iran.

Along with Saudi officials, leaders from Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar were meeting with Kerry in this Red Sea port city, the Saudi government's summer home.

​​The coalition may need enhanced military basing and overflights for airstrikes against the Islamic State, the State Department official said. Saudi Arabia already has agreed to allow camps for training moderate rebels to fight the IS insurgents.

Meanwhile, the expanded campaign drew condemnation from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime and from Russia.

'Any action of any kind without the consent of the Syrian government would be an attack on Syria,' said its national reconciliation minister, Ali Haidar, according to Reuters.

And Russia said such unilateraction would violate international law.

Urging condemnation of extremism

The senior State Department official said Kerry was asking Arab leaders to use nationally owned media – including Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya – as well as their religious establishments to speak out against Islamic State extremism in hopes of undermining its appeal to young recruits.

In that push, Kerry echoes Obama's denunciation of the ISIL group as not 'Islamic' because no religion condones the killing of innocents.

'ISIL claims to be fighting on behalf of Islam, but the fact is that its hateful ideology has nothing to do with Islam,' Kerry said. 'ISIL is a manifestation of evil, a vicious terrorist organization, and it is a organization that achieves its goals only through violence, repression and destruction, fed by illicit funding and a stream of foreign fighters. It has seized territory and terrorized the people who live there regardless of their sect or ethnicity.'

Kerry is also asking for better efforts to stop individuals from sending money to extremist groups, as the U.S. official says financial enforcement by Kuwait and Qatar has been 'spotty.'

Kerry will push to stop ISIL oil smuggling through the Jordanian and Turkish borders, where the senior State Department official says authorities have pledged to do all they can to stop it, but Washington will 'be working with them more intently over the next few weeks on intelligence sharing and border control.'

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.