Arabs back US anti-IS move despite Syrian warning

AFP, Jeddah :Arab nations rallied behind US President Barack Obama’s call to expand operations against jihadists in Iraq and Syria, as Damascus warned it would consider any action on its territory as an attack.Ten states, including heavyweight Saudi Arabia, “agreed to do their share in the comprehensive fight” against Islamic State, said a statement after a meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Arab counterparts.Iraq’s new unity government and the Syrian opposition welcomed Obama’s plan, but Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and powerful ally Russia condemned it.”Any action of any kind without the consent of the Syrian government would be an attack on Syria,” National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar said.Obama said Wednesday he had ordered the US military to expand its operations against IS, which has seized a swathe of Iraq and Syria and committed horrifying atrocities.”Our objective is clear: we will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy,” Obama said, using an alternative acronym for the group.”I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria, as well as Iraq.”He said he was sending another 475 military personnel to help train Iraqi forces, but stressed that the campaign would not be a repeat of the exhausting ground wars fought by US troops in the past decade. Instead, Washington is looking to empower partners on the ground like Iraqi and Kurdish forces, as well as Syrian rebels. US combat aircraft will soon start flying out of a base in the Kurdish region of Iraq as part of the campaign, the Pentagon said.Obama called on Congress to swiftly authorise an operation to train and equip moderate fighters, but several House Republicans said after a caucus meeting Thursday that a quick vote on that was unlikely.House Speaker John Boehner said they were worried that the broader strategy was insufficient.”If our goal is to eliminate ISIL, there’s a lot of doubt whether the plan that was outlined by the president… is enough to accomplish that mission,” he said.Along with the Saudis, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon were Arab parties to the agreement. A final statement declared a “shared commitment to stand united against the threat posed by all terrorism, including the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant”.Participation will include “as appropriate, joining in the many aspects of a coordinated military campaign against ISIL”.The fight will include “stopping the flow of foreign fighters through neighbouring countries, countering financing of ISIL and other violent extremists, repudiating their hateful ideology, ending impunity and bringing perpetrators to justice”.