Iraq calls for end to extremist 'sanctuaries'

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-EXCITE

By LORI HINNANT and LARA JAKES

PARIS (AP) — Diplomats from around the world pledged to fight Islamic State militants "by any means necessary" as Iraq asked allies to thwart the extremists wherever they find sanctuary. Iran and the United States ruled out coordinating with each other, leaving Baghdad's government caught between two powerful and antagonistic allies.

Neither Iran nor Syria, which together share most of Iraq's borders, was invited to the international conference in Paris, which opened as a pair of French reconnaissance jets took off over Iraqi skies. But the State Department left open the possibility of new discussions with Iran later in the week, while precluding any military cooperation.

"We are asking for airborne operations to be continued regularly against terrorist sites. We must not allow them to set up sanctuaries. We must pursue them wherever they are. We must cut off their financing. We must bring them to justice and we must stop the fighters in neighboring countries from joining them," President Fouad Massoum said.

With memories of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq still raw, the U.S. has so far been alone in carrying out airstrikes and no country has offered ground troops, but Iraq on Monday won a declaration by the conference's 24 participant nations to help fight the militants "by any means necessary, including military assistance." An American official said Sunday several Arab countries had offered to conduct airstrikes, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue, and there were no public commitments on Monday.

FULL story at link.



Top row from left, Japanese Ambassador to Iraq Kazuka Nashida, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong, British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond, Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Qatari Foreign Minister Khaled Bin Mohamed al Attiyah, Turkish Foreign Minister Melvut Cavusoglu, Secretary General of the Arab Ligue Nabil al Arabi, middle row from left, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, Jordanian Foreign Minister, Sheikh Sabah Khaled al Hamad, Foreign Minister of United Arab Emirates Sheik Abdullah Bin Zayed al Nahyan, unitentified, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, Norwegian Foreign Borge Brendem, Czech Republic Foreign Minister Lubormir Zaoralek, German Foreign Minister Frank-Waltyer Steinmeier. Front row from left, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al Jaafari, Iraqi President Fouad Massoum, French President Francois Hollande, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and U.S. Secretary of States John Kerry, Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini and Belgian Foreign Minister Jean-Arthur Regibeau, pose for a group photo at the French Foreign ministry in Paris, Monday Sept. 15, 2014, prior to a meeting on the Islamic State group. Diplomats from around the world are in Paris pressing for a coherent global strategy to combat extremists from the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool)


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140915/islamic_state-868f083a2c.html

[Scootaloo]

1. "Iran and the United States ruled out coordinating with each other,"

Well, no, the US ruled out coordinating with Iran. Iran wasn't involved in the decision.

[karynnj]

2. No, Iran ruled it out and claimed they rejected the US idea to work together

In Tehran, the tone was quite different. Iranian officials gave out flurries of statements to local reporters on Monday, saying they had rejected multiple invitations by the United States to join the coalition. Never, they asserted, would Iran consider working with the United States to cleanse the region of terrorists, who the Iranians asserted had been created and nurtured by the West.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/world/middleeast/iraqi-leader-asks-world-powers-to-pursue-isis-in-syria.html

From the article it seems that the US may have had the choice of getting the Sunni companies to join, which the US thinks is essential or Iran to come. It also seems that there is more common interest to "deconflict" than it sounds like from many comments on each side. (I had never heard the word before Kerry used it -- and it is subtlety different from coordinating. )