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U.S. Ready to Train Iraqi Security Forces to Fight ISIS, Kerry Says
Saudi Arabia Will Grant U.S. Request for Anti-ISIS Training Program
(about 7 hours later)
BAGHDAD — Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday that Iraqi leaders had made sufficient political progress to warrant joint United States-Iraqi action against the Sunni militants who have seized much of northern and western Iraq, and indicated that the United States was now prepared to help train Iraq’s security forces.
AMMAN, Jordan — Saudi Arabia has indicated that it would agree to an American request to provide bases to train moderate Syrian opposition fighters, American officials said on Wednesday.
“We stand by Iraq,” Mr. Kerry said after a whirlwind series of meetings with the Iraqi government’s new leaders. “And we stand by them as they fight to overcome their single greatest threat.”
Saudi willingness to host a training program comes as Secretary of State John Kerry is preparing to fly to Jidda, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday morning for a high-level strategy session on how to counter the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The United States carried out airstrikes on ISIS targets in northern Iraq last month, but Mr. Kerry, like other Obama administration officials, ruled out the addition of American combat troops. He said the United States, along with other nations, would help train and rebuild the Iraqi military.
The meeting that is being hosted by the Saudis will also include senior officials from Arab states in the Persian Gulf region, as well as Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.
He also highlighted the Iraqis’ decision to create new national guard units that would be recruited locally and given the main responsibility for security in their home areas; they are also likely to require foreign assistance.
A senior State Department official said a number of initiatives to weaken ISIS would be stepped up, including efforts to stop the flow of money to the terrorist group by cracking down on oil smuggling and curtailing contributions from private donors.
The French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said in Paris on Wednesday that his country was ready to take part in airstrikes against ISIS if needed, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Fabius called for international mobilization against “this transnational danger that could reach all the way to our soil,” the agency quoted him as saying. France is scheduled to host an international conference on Monday to discuss how to stop ISIS and assist Iraq.
On the military front, the State Department official said regional defense ministers would meet soon to discuss expanded basing and over-flight rights so the United States and other nations could broaden their airstrikes against ISIS.
The Shiite-led government of the former Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, left many Sunni Arabs and Kurds in the country feeling disenfranchised. As it sought support among Sunnis for its goal of creating a Muslim caliphate spanning Syria and Iraq, ISIS exploited those sectarian tensions, which had been aggravated by Mr. Maliki’s government.
Plans for training and arming moderate Syrian rebels so they can confront ISIS and the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus are also expected to be discussed in Jidda.
The Obama administration has made the formation of an inclusive Iraqi government a precondition for expanded security assistance to Baghdad in its fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the Sunni militant group that has overrun much of the country since June.
“We are in a position, I think, to be pretty specific with the Saudis about what we’d like,” a senior State Department official said, referring to the training and arming effort. “We’re fairly confident they will be forward leaning on this.”
Some Sunni tribal leaders and Kurdish officials have expressed skepticism in recent weeks about the prospects for genuine power sharing, and some important pieces of the political puzzle have yet to be filled in, including the selection of the defense and interior ministers.
The White House said in a statement that President Obama called King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and that the two leaders “had agreed on the need for increased training and equipping of the moderate Syrian opposition.”
But in public remarks before their one-on-one meeting, Mr. Kerry and Haider al-Abadi, the new Shiite prime minister, said the requirement for inclusivity was being met.
The Saudis, who have grave concerns that ISIS may present a threat to the stability of the kingdom, are emerging as a key member of the anti-ISIS coalition the Obama administration is trying to form because of their financial resources and Islamic regional credentials.
“Everybody is on board,” Mr. Abadi said in fluent English, referring to Iraq’s often disputatious Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish populations.
The replacement of Nuri Kamal al-Maliki as Iraq’s prime minister has made it easier for the Saudis to cooperate with Iraq. King Abdullah had complained that Mr. Maliki was untrustworthy and too much under the influence of Iran in a 2009 conversation with John O. Brennan, the C.I.A. director who was then serving as Mr. Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, according a cable made public by WikiLeaks, the antisecrecy organization.
Mr. Kerry met with Mr. Abadi in the same vast and ornate palace that the United States used as its political headquarters during its occupation of Iraq and that now serves as an office for the new Iraqi prime minister. “We are very encouraged,” Mr. Kerry said.
Yet the more forcible approach Mr. Obama has recently adopted on intervention in Syria has also made it easier for the two sides to cooperate.
Mr. Kerry also met with Fuad Masum, the Kurd who is Iraq’s new president, and Salim al-Jubouri, a Sunni and the speaker of Parliament. Under an informal political bargain forged after the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the Iraqi presidency is held by a Kurd, the speaker of Parliament is a Sunni Arab and the position of prime minister, the most powerful post, goes to a Shiite.
To the dismay of the Saudis, Mr. Obama had refrained from carrying out airstrikes last year after forces loyal to Mr. Assad used chemical weapons. And in 2012, Mr. Obama overruled most of his principal national security officials when they proposed arming and training moderate rebels in Syria.
American officials had promoted the establishment of locally recruited national guard units as a major initiative to roll back ISIS’s gains in Iraq.
But now Mr. Obama appears to have opened the door to airstrikes against ISIS in Syria and is asking Congress to approve hundreds of millions of dollars in funds so the Pentagon can train and arm Syrian rebels.
In an echo of the Sunni Awakening program, in which Iraqi tribes made common cause with American forces during the occupation to fight Al Qaeda in Iraq, some of the national guard units would be draw from local tribes.
The meeting in Jidda is just one stop in which Mr. Kerry has sought to rally international efforts against ISIS.
On Wednesday, Mr. Kerry held a whirlwind series of meetings in Baghdad with Haidar al-Abadi, the new Iraqi prime minister, and other top Iraqi officials.
Afterward, Mr. Kerry told reporters that Iraqi leaders had made sufficient political progress toward forming an inclusive government to warrant further cooperation with Iraq against ISIS, including efforts to help train Iraqi security forces.
“We stand by Iraq as it continues to build a government that meets the needs of each of Iraq’s diverse communities, “ Mr. Kerry said.
Mr. Kerry hailed the Iraqis decision to create new national guard units that would be recruited locally and given the main responsibility for security in their home areas.
“The United States is prepared to provide technical advice and assistance in order to help the Iraqis move this very important initiative forward,” Mr. Kerry said.
In an echo of the Sunni Awakening program from the Iraq war, in which tribes made common cause with American forces to fight Al Qaeda in Iraq, some of the national guard units would be drawn from local tribes.
But in one major difference, the national guard soldiers would formally be part of Iraq’s security structure and would be trained on Iraqi military bases. Reporting to local governors, they would also receive salaries and pensions from the government.
But in one major difference, the national guard soldiers would formally be part of Iraq’s security structure and would be trained on Iraqi military bases. Reporting to local governors, they would also receive salaries and pensions from the government.
The plan is intended to rebuild the fighting capability the Iraqi government lost after many of its soldiers deserted or quit fighting in the face of ISIS’s onslaught.
The plan is intended to rebuild the fighting capability the Iraqi government lost after many of its soldiers deserted or quit fighting in the face of the ISIS onslaught.
The decentralization of security responsibilities is also intended to ease sectarian tensions by giving Sunnis more control over their own affairs and reducing the need for a largely Shiite army to be deployed on their territory.
The decentralization of security responsibilities is also intended to ease sectarian tensions by giving Sunnis more control over their own affairs and reducing the need for a largely Shiite army to be deployed on their territory
It would also replace the ad hoc arrangements for paying Awakening members that eventually led to the initiative’s demise.
“The people of Anbar will take on ISIL,” one senior American official told reporters traveling with Mr. Kerry, using an alternative name for ISIS. “The people of Nineveh will take on ISIL in Nineveh, and they will have assistance from the national army when they need it.
“The people of Anbar will take on ISIL,” a senior State Department official told reporters traveling with Mr. Kerry, using an alternative name for ISIS. “The people of Nineveh will take on ISIL in Nineveh, and they will have assistance from the national army when they need it.
“One thing Abadi has said repeatedly,” added the official, who, following State Department protocol, asked for anonymity, “is that he is not going to use military units from the south and go into areas in the north and west” to fight ISIS.
“One thing Abadi has said repeatedly,” the official added, “is that he is not going to use military units from the south and go into areas in the north and west” to fight ISIS.
But the plan still requires assistance from the United States and other nations in training and advising the Iraqi military forces who would back up the local guard units. And it requires a major effort to enlist Sunnis, persuade them to pledge allegiance to the Iraqi government, and equip and train them so they would be a credible fighting force.
In a news conference before departing Baghdad, Mr. Kerry said the United States was not coordinating its military actions in Iraq with Iran.
Pressed to explain why Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders could not overcome years of differences over revenue sharing, oil policy and the role of former members of Mr. Hussein’s Baath Party, Mr. Kerry insisted that they had learned to cooperate.
“Every single leader that I talked to,” he said, “affirmed that they had learned lessons in the last years.”
Iraq is just the first stop for Mr. Kerry on his travels in the Middle East and Europe to try to line up support for the fight against ISIS.
Mr. Kerry will also be meeting in Amman, Jordan, Wednesday evening with King Abdullah. And he will be traveling to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday, where Saudi and other Arab officials are gathering to discuss how to respond to the ISIS threat.
Mr. Kerry also plans to attend an international conference on Iraq that is being convened in Paris early next week.
