U.S. forms an international coalition to fight, defeat ISIS

An indication for this was offered by Yousef al-Otaiba, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the United States, who said in a statement earlier this week that the United Arab Emirates stood ready to join the fight against ISIS. “No one has more at stake than the UAE and other moderate countries in the region that have rejected the regressive Islamist creed and embraced a different, forward-looking path,” the ambassador said. The Emiratis, he said, are “ready to join the international community in an urgent, coordinated and sustained effort to confront a threat that will, if unchecked, have global ramifications for decades to come.”

Since 8 August, the United States has launched 128 air strikes on ISIS positions in northern Iraq.

The U.S. military made it clear, though, that air strikes would only contain the ISIS advance, not defeat the group, and that a broader strategy and alliance was required to achieve the latter goal.

An administration official on Friday told the New York Times that there are reasons for assembling a coalition which go beyond any political cover such an alliance would provide the president from a war-weary American public. The official said that certain countries bring specific expertise, like Britain and Australia in special operations, Jordan in intelligence, Turkey in border control, and Saudi Arabia in financing.

“Sure, the American military can handle air strikes,” the official said, speaking on grounds of anonymity. “But it’s always nice to have help from your friends.”

The Guardian notes that the decision to form the international coalition was made at a joint meeting of defense and foreign office ministers chaired by Kerry and his British counterpart, Philip Hammond.

British sources told the paper that the United States did not request that the United Kingdom or NATO to carry out air strikes of their own against ISIS. The agreement of the ten nations to attend the meeting under a NATO umbrella means, however, that a robust military component is in the plans for the campaign against the Islamist militants.

“The meeting was NATO countries coming together to see, particularly on the diplomatic and political front, how we put together the best support for the countries in the region,” a spokesman for David Cameron said. “It is a politically led strategy and no commitment to military action has been taken.”

He emphasized that the next phase of NATO support to Iraq – training and rearming the Iraqi armed forces – was dependent on an effective, permanent, inclusive government in Baghdad.

It is likely the core coalition will put together a UN resolution endorsing military and political support for the Iraqi forces trying to evict ISIS from the areas the group now controls. It is not clear whether there will be any mention of ISIS bases in Syria at this stage, as this issue is likely to cause difficulty for Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council.