Paris: President Fuad Masum of Iraq urged world powers on Monday to take the fight against Islamist militants who have occupied much of his country to neighbouring Syria.
“We must not allow them to have sanctuaries,” Masum said at the opening of an international conference on helping Iraq respond to the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). “We must pursue them wherever they are.”
The more than a dozen nations that participated in the conference later issued a statement pledging their support for the new Iraqi government in its fight against Isil, including military assistance.
But no fresh pledges of military aid were announced, and the statement did not commit any of the nations to take military action inside Syria.
“They committed to supporting the new Iraqi Government in its fight against Isil, including appropriate military assistance, the statement said. It added that the aid would be “in accordance with international law and without jeopardising civilian security.”
President Francois Hollande of France, who opened the session, said Isil represented a global danger and urged the international community to help Iraq.
‘No time to lose’
“The Iraqis’ fight against terrorists is also ours,” Hollande said. “There is no time to lose.”
Masum’s appeal for broader military action against Isil is not a new one for the Iraqi government, but it was significant that he made it in a gathering of 26 nations plus representatives of the United Nations, the European Union and the Arab League.
In recent weeks, the United States has focused its air strikes inside Iraq: defending the northern city of Arbil, securing Mosul Dam and protecting Haditha Dam.
But Iraq’s new prime minister, Haider Al Abadi, has asked the United States to take action on the Syrian side of the border to deprive Isil of the havens it enjoys there.
And Masoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdish autonomous region, also urged action in the Iraqi-Syria border area in a telephone call on Saturday with Secretary of State John Kerry, State Department officials said.
“The Iraqis have asked for assistance in the border regions, and that’s something we’re looking at,” a senior State Department official said on Sunday. The official asked not to be identified under the protocol for briefing reporters.
Isil is in control of much of northern and western Iraq and has a sanctuary in Syria. Western nations are concerned that more Europeans or Americans might join the group, become further radicalised and then return home to carry out terrorist attacks.
The Obama administration has authorised intelligence gathering over Syria and has said targets there are not off-limits for eventual air strikes. But US officials have indicated that the first phase of their plan is to carry out air attacks in Iraq while helping to train or equip Iraqi soldiers and Kurdish peshmerga fighters and to stand up new national guard units whose members would largely be from Sunni tribes.
Iran opposes Isil but is not attending the conference here. The French government had initially opened the door to a possible role by Iran, but US officials were concerned that this might have precluded Saudi Arabia and some neighbouring states from attending. So Kerry opposed the idea, noting that Iran’s paramilitary Quds force has been supporting President Bashar Al Assad of Syria.
“Under the circumstances, at this moment in time, it would not be right,” Kerry said on Friday during a visit to Ankara, Turkey, adding that he had not been consulted about the idea of including Iran. “Iran has been deeply involved with its forces on the ground in Syria.”
Iran, for its part, criticised the Paris conference and argued that representatives from the Al Assad government should be included in any coordinated international strategy against Isil.
“The best way of fighting Isil is to “strengthen the Iraqi and Syrian governments, which have been engaged in a serious struggle against terrorism,” Deputy Foreign Minister Hussain Amir Abdul Lahian told a visiting French lawmaker in Tehran, according to the Iranian news agency ISNA. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has not been waiting for the formation of an international coalition — it has been carrying out its obligations.”
Al Assad has sought to present himself as the only viable alternative to Isil. Some critics say Al Assad may have refrained from attacking some Isil targets in Syria, while taking the fight to moderate Syria rebels, so that he could present himself as a potential ally of the West in its struggle against Islamic extremism.
