Isis: world leaders give strong backing for Iraq at Paris conference - as it happened
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Version 0 of 1. 2.20pm BST14:20 We're closing this live blog with the Guardian's wrap on the Paris conference. Here is how it begins. Thanks for reading and for your comments. Leaders and diplomats from more than 30 countries pledged to use "whatever means necessary" including military action to defeat the global threat of Islamic State (Isis) after a crisis meeting in Paris on Monday. The emergency talks were held as France began reconnaissance flights over Iraq after announcing it was ready to join American air strikes and the prospect of Britain joining military action moved closer. Speaking after the conference, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, ruled out military coordination with Iran in any US-led campaign against Isis – a statement that chimed discordantly with an announcement made earlier on Monday by the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claiming that Tehran had privately refused US requests for cooperation. Jen Psaki, Kerry's spokesperson, said in a statement that while the US "are not and will not" coordinate militarily with Iran, it has not ruled out the possibility of future talks with the Iranian leadership. "There may be another opportunity on the margins in the future to discuss Iraq," Psaki said. Following the talks, the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said Isis was neither "a state or representative of Islam" , neither was what he called its "throat-cutter". "It's a movement so dangerous that all those here today consider it necessary not just to make it retreat, but to make it disappear," Fabius said. "When you have a group of this kind there is no other approach than to defend oneself. That is what the international community has decided to do. Dr Ibrahim Al Jaafari, the Iraqi foreign affairs minister, thanked those who taking part in the conference for their support, which he said would "alleviate the sufferings of all Iraqi people". "This conference conveys a clear message, that they [the participants] are all standing by our side … that no country will be abandoned, that if it is attacked by terrorists the whole international community will stand united," al-Jaafari said. 2.13pm BST14:13 Wolfgang Gressmann has paid a touching tribute to David Haines, the Scottish aid worker, who was killed by Isis militants. Here is an extract. In summer 1999, a young man with a disarming smile entered our office in Ivanić Grad, Croatia. At that time, I worked for the German “Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund,” which was implementing a large-scale reconstruction and refugee return program in the Balkans. The man introduced himself as David Haines, and said he wanted to support us as a volunteer. My colleagues and I were intrigued by his contagious sense of humor, his openness, and his passion to help others. It wasn’t long before he had worked his way into a full-time contract to manage our regional office in northern Croatia. David’s enthusiasm and energy seemed to be endless. I remember how he organized, after work, a rock concert: “Musicians against Mines,” with famous Croatian bands in Petrinja. The concert was a great success, and David’s team used the money collected to support mine victims and mine awareness classes in the local kindergartens. In 2002, David organized the first “go-and-see visits” for refugees from Serbia to the village of Donji Kasić in the hinterland of the Croatian coast. The project was a milestone in the refugee return process in the Balkans: for the first time in the eight years after the war, minority families were able to return to their homes, in areas that had been cleared of landmines and reconstructed under David’s leadership. After his time with ASB, David started to work as a technical director for a company in Croatia, selling catering equipment and hotel accessories across the region. All that he wanted was to spend more time in Sisak with his wife Dragana and their newborn daughter. Their business was successful, but his desire to help people in need did not end. So, when the Arab Spring movement began in 2011, David became restless again. He returned to aid work and joined the charity Handicap International as the head of its mission in war-torn Libya, where he helped to educate people about the dangers posed by explosive remnants of war. The following year he moved on to South Sudan, to work with Nonviolent Peaceforce, an organisation seeking to facilitate peace initiatives in dangerous environments. We stayed in touch over the years mainly via phone and Skype, and always planned to meet up again to compare notes. I was delighted when I got an email from Dave in March last year, telling me that he would be moving to support the French organisation ACTED in the Syria crisis response, and that he was coming to Antakya, in Turkey, where I was based at that time. On the evening of 11 March, we met in the lobby of the Savon hotel and headed out to the Antioch bar downtown near the river. We had a lot of catching up to do, sharing our fond memories, our plans, and a lot of cold Efes beer. David told me how much he missed his wife and daughter, but also how much he was looking forward to being a relief worker again, responding to the largest humanitarian disaster of our time. What he wanted most was to contribute to change, for the good of others. The next day, he said, he would be heading across the border into Syria, to do a needs assessment. In the morning, just before he left, he sent me an e-mail: “Hey mate, hope you slept well. I'm away to one of the camps for the next couple of days but will email for a repeat of last night, hahaha…” This was the last correspondence he ever sent. Dave never returned from Syria. 1.44pm BST13:44 Henry McDonald, the Guardian’s Dublin correspondent, says Irish police have contacted Dublin station FM104 over their interview a few weeks ago with Khalid Kelly, an Irish convert to an extreme brand of Islam who expressed support on air for Isis. Henry writes: During his interview Kelly called on Irish UN peacekeepers deployed on the Golan Heights to defect from the Republic’s Defence Forces and join Isis fighters in Syria. The 48 year old Dublin born Islamic convert then told the station that two journalists Isil beheaded in Iraq were “spies”. Irish FM104 talkshow host Chris Barry told the Irish edition of The Star newspaper that the Irish police want the tape of the interview. Barry said: “Gardai have requested the recording from us. He is clearly a person of interest to them and is also clearly a supporter of the Islamic State.They are his brothers and he talked fondly of them.” Kelly is a father-of-three and a former Catholic altar boy who converted to the religion in 2000. In previous interviews the Irish Islamist has said that his “heart feels comforted” every time he watches footage of the 9/11 attacks. Mainstream Muslim leaders in Ireland have warned about the enroachment of Islamic extremists into the community. Dr Ali al-Saleh, imam at the Shia mosque in Milltown in Dublin, has warned that Islamic extremists are active in Ireland. “They (Isis members) live here, they are active at the level of small circles, giving lectures, talking to the youth. This is a problem. We’ve said that from the beginning, now we have it. We didn’t tackle it from the beginning. It is a duty of us, the Imam, to talk openly against those things. I ask the Muslims here to cooperate with the gardai and to notify them about any activities like this.” Updated at 2.23pm BST 1.35pm BST13:35 Lunchtime summary Updated at 1.56pm BST 1.14pm BST13:14 Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, said many of the participants at the Paris conference spoke of the need to sever the Islamic State’s funding, adding that a conference on this subject would soon be organised by Bahrain. 12.23pm BST12:23 The US is also facing the problem of jihadi recruits going to fight in Syria. This is from Reuters on a new phenomenon of women from the American heartland joining Islamic State (Isis). At least three Somali families in the Minneapolis-St Paul area have female relatives who have gone missing in the past six weeks and may have tried to join Islamic State, said community leader Abdirizak Bihi. He said that while the reasons for their disappearance were unclear, he had told the families to contact police. In a separate case, a 19-year-old American Somali woman from St Paul snuck away from her parents on August 25 saying she was going to a bridal shower. Instead, she flew to Turkey and joined IS in Syria. Home to the biggest Somali community in the United States, the Twin Cities area of Minnesota has been plagued by terrorist recruiting since the Somali group al-Shabaab began enlisting in America around 2007. This year, law enforcement officials say they learned of 15-20 men with connections to the Minnesota Somali community fighting for extremist groups in Syria. They included Douglas McAuthur McCain, a convert to Islam, who was killed in battle this summer. The St Paul woman is the first case of an area female joining IS that has been made public although her family have asked for her name to be kept private because it fears retaliation from Islamists. While foreign women who join Islamic State often envision aiding a holy war or at least playing an active role in establishing a purist Islamic nation, the reality can be more mundane. Monitoring of extremists’ social media accounts and other writings shows that male jihadis regard women counterparts as little more than mating partners, said Mia Bloom, from the Center for Terrorism and Security Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. “ISIS is recruiting these women in order to be baby factories. They are seeing the establishment of an Islamic state and now they need to populate the state,” Bloom said. 12.11pm BST12:11 Allies will support Iraq 'by any means necessary' against Isis Participants at the Paris conference have agreed to support the new Iraqi government by “any means necessary” in its fight against Isis, including appropriate military aid, so a strong statement of support for the new Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi. That’s the main theme from the conference statement. No great surprise and nothing to make Isis militants lose any sleep. But it’s another building block in the uneasy coalition that Barack Obama is assembling against the jihadis. Here is the statement in full. At the invitation of the President of the French Republic and the President of the Republic of Iraq, an international conference on peace and security in Iraq was held today in Paris. 2. The conference participants (Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, Arab League, European Union, United Nations) expressed their commitment to the unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Iraq. They welcomed the formation of a new government under the authority of the Prime Minister, Mr Haïdar al-Abadi, and offered him their full support to strengthen the rule of law, implement a policy of inclusiveness, and ensure that all components are fairly represented within the federal institutions and all citizens are treated equally. All of these measures are necessary in order to successfully combat Daech (ISIL) and terrorist groups, which represent a threat to all Iraqis. 3. The conference participants asserted that Daech (ISIL) is a threat not only to Iraq but also to the entire international community. They condemned the crimes and acts of mass violence that Daech (ISIL) commits against civilians, including the most vulnerable minorities, which may amount to crimes against humanity. They agreed to cooperate and do everything to ensure that the culprits are brought to justice. They confirmed support for the inquiry led by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to that end. 4. All participants underscored the urgent need to remove Daech (ISIL) from the regions in which it has established itself in Iraq. To that end, they committed to supporting the new Iraqi Government in its fight against Daech (ISIL), by any means necessary, including appropriate military assistance, in line with the needs expressed by the Iraqi authorities, in accordance with international law and without jeopardizing civilian security. 5. The conference participants also reaffirmed their commitment to the relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council on the fight against terrorism and its sources of recruitment and financing, in particular Resolution 2170. They will make sure that this resolution is correctly implemented and will take the necessary measures to ensure it has all the intended effects. They firmly believe that resolute action is necessary to eradicate Daech (ISIL), particularly measures to prevent radicalization, coordination between all security services and stricter border control. They welcomed the prospect of working on an action plan to combat terrorist financing. 6. Reiterating their support for the Iraqi Government, the international partners recalled the need to support the Iraqi people’s desire for human rights to be observed in a federal framework that respects the constitution, regional rights and national unity. 7. They recognized the role played by the United Nations in Iraq, particularly in coordinating and facilitating international assistance to the Iraqi Government. The conference participants also recognized that the Arab League and the European Union are essential long-term strategic partners for Iraq. 8. The conference participants agreed to continue and increase, depending on changes in the situation on the ground, the provision of emergency humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi Government and local authorities, in order to help them accommodate and assist refugees and displaced persons, who should be able to return to their homes safely. 9. The international partners declared that they were willing to assist Iraq in its reconstruction work, with the aim of achieving fair regional development, in particular by providing expertise, know-how and appropriate financial support. Through, for example, specific global found to help reconstruction of areas devastated by Daech (ISIL). 10. The international partners agreed to remain fully mobilized in their support for the Iraqi authorities and in the fight against Daech (ISIL). They will ensure that the commitments made today are implemented and followed up on, notably in the framework of the United Nations and during the high-level meetings that will be held alongside the United Nations General Assembly. 11.34am BST11:34 Agence France-Presse has more on how Iran turned down an American request early on to cooperate against Isis. Ayatollah Khamenei said the Americans had “dirty hands”. Iran rejected a US request for cooperation against the jihadist Islamic State group early in its advance in Iraq and Syria, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday. “Right from the start, the United States asked through its ambassador in Iraq whether we could cooperate against Daesh (Arabic acronym for IS),” Khamenei said in a statement on his official website. “I said no, because they have dirty hands,” said Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state in Iran. “Secretary of State (John Kerry) personally asked (Iranian counterpart) Mohammad Javad Zarif and he rejected the request,” said Khamenei, who was leaving hospital after what doctors said was successful prostate surgery. He accused Washington of seeking a “pretext to do in Iraq and Syria what it already does in Pakistan - bomb anywhere without authorisation.” Washington had appealed for help from all regional states against the jihadists, who spearheaded a lightning offensive through the Sunni Arab heartland north and west of Baghdad in June and then unleashed a wave of atrocities against ethnic and religious minorities. But last week Kerry ruled out cooperation with Tehran citing its “engagement in Syria and elsewhere” and neither the Iranian nor the Syrian governments were invited to an international conference on the IS threat that opened in Paris on Monday. 11.29am BST11:29 Iran rejects cooperation with US on Isis threat Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei says Iran will not cooperate with the US in Iraq, CNN tweets. There has been much speculation whether the US and Iran will form an alliance of convenience to confront Isis. Iran won't cooperate with U.S. to combat ISIS in Iraq, country's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei said on Twitter. http://t.co/8kkTX5LMcU Updated at 11.30am BST 11.11am BST11:11 Reuters has this interesting story on the $500m aid package for Syrian rebels Obama is seeking to push through Congress. It sounds impressive, but as Reuters points out, it does not include anti-tank and anti-aircraft and other heavy weapons the ‘moderate’ rebels want. The US fears that such arms will fall into the arms of Isis and other extremist groups. As President Barack Obama knits together an international coalition to take its campaign against Islamic State from Iraq into Syria, fighters like Ammar al-Wawi could make the difference. If he had the chance, he says. He fears that restrictions on the kind of weapons he’ll receive and the training he’ll get under a $500m White House proposal to arm moderate Syrian rebels will make his job impossible. “We don’t really need more training. And we have enough soldiers. What we need are quality weapons,” said Wawi, a commander in the Free Syrian Army, a loose collection of moderate rebels fighting both the Islamic State and Syrian government forces. “We need anti-aircraft weapons. We need anti-tank weapons. If we don’t get those, we can’t win, no matter what the United States does.” Under the current legislation in Congress, Wawi is unlikely to get what he wants, highlighting a dilemma for Obama after he authorised last week US air strikes for the first time in Syria and more attacks in Iraq in a broad escalation of a campaign against the Islamic State militants who have seized a third of both countries. The administration has resisted providing powerful weapons requested by the rebels such as surface-to-air missiles due to fears they could be captured or used against America or its allies. US military officials have privately expressed reluctance to equipping the rebels with surface-to-air missiles, concerned such weapons could undercut the US aerial advantage if they fall into the hands of Islamic State. However, they said there is support within the Pentagon for supplying the rebels with weapons beyond small arms and ammunition, including battlefield artillery, anti-tank rockets and mortars. It is unclear, however, if more American weapons and training can shift the battlefield balance toward the US-backed rebels, who are badly outgunned by Islamic State, other militant groups and Assad’s forces. Wawi is skeptical of American training. He went through it, he said, in Qatar for 15 days in July last year. “They only taught me how to use Russian weapons like Kalashnikov rifles,” he said. “I didn’t find it very useful.” 10.56am BST10:56 Le Monde in its editorial argues that the response to Isis has to be a huge diplomatic effort as well as military. Bombing bases scattered over a vast area, often in the city, will not be easy. Even more difficult is the necessary political effort. We must force Baghdad to make peace with its minorities. We must seek to put an end to the Syrian tragedy. This implies a massive political and diplomatic investment. At least as much as a military intervention. Updated at 12.23pm BST 10.46am BST10:46 How should David Cameron respond to the murder of David Haines? This Guardian editorial urges him to refrain from a unilateral military response. In spite of Mr Haines’s horrific killing, to assert a unilateral UK military response at this stage in the process would not just have been to do what Isis wants. It would also, in the context of the evolving strategy signalled last week by President Obama, have been recklessly premature. It would have reinforced the old imperial stereotype and in the wrong way. The UK has the material ability to respond to a horrific international event of this kind, but it needs the moral and political ability too. Mr Cameron should only respond in ways that lend legitimacy to the action rather than put its legitimacy at risk. A key test at all times is efficacy, not just in a military sense but in a political and legal sense too. That point may have got a little closer this weekend. But it has not yet been reached. Updated at 12.23pm BST 10.40am BST10:40 The German foreign office has a picture of the assembled delegates in Paris with a denunciation of Isis. FM #Steinmeier at #Iraq Conf. in #Paris on struggle against ISIS: No one of us can tolerate a return to barbarism.1/2 pic.twitter.com/0iiJSWXCEn 10.36am BST10:36 Germany is holding its first trial of a suspected jihadist. This is from Deutsche Welle, the German broadcaster. In a first-of-its-kind case in Germany, accused jihadist Kreshnik B. will stand trial in Frankfurt. He is believed to have joined the ranks of the terror group Islamic State, which seeks to establish a caliphate based on orthodox Muslim Sharia law and has occupied vast areas of northern Iraq and Syria. The accused, who once played for a German football club, is believed to have travelled to Syria in July 2013 with the intention of fighting with jihadists there. He was arrested at the Frankfurt airport last year in December and has been in police custody since then. German prosecutors have accused Kreshnik B. of joining the Islamic State (IS) in the second half of 2013 and of committing treason. According to the indictment, Kreshnik B. took an oath of loyalty with the foreign fighters. He also got trained in using weapons and took over cleaning and guard duties for his organisation. Germany also accuses Kreshnik B. of having taken part in three operations for IS. 10.32am BST10:32 The Independent’s Middle East expert, Patrick Cockburn, says fear of Isis is producing strange bedfellows in an “un-coalition of the unwilling”. Here is an extract. In Iraq the Iranian controlled Shia militias, which used to specialise in killing American troops, have relieved the Shia town of Amerli, long besieged by Isis, the militia’s advance made possible by US airstrikes. Hundreds of officers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are embedded in the militias as leaders and advisers without Washington making any objection. The line-up of opponents of Isis is strange and not at all what it appears to be. There is a core group of NATO members including Turkey that is a sort of supporters club for those opposing Isis. By highly publicised killings, Isis is showing that it will retaliate against any of these countries and make them pay a price. With Isis holding 49 hostages from the Turkish consulate in Mosul, Turkey says it dare not do too much, even if it wanted to do. In addition to these cautious or reluctant allies the US has states and movements who are actively fighting Isis on the ground, but many are long-demonised enemies of America and the UK. One commentator calls this “the un-coalition of the willing” because those willing to oppose Isis in Iraq include the Iraqi army and the pesh merga of the Kurdistan regional government, but the most potent fighting force on the government side is the Shia militias, most though not all of which are led or advised by Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers. Iran is crucial for the defence of the Baghdad government. Mr (John) Kerry knows this but was grandly declaring at the weekend that Iran could not join his anti-Isis coalition. 10.24am BST10:24 10.22am BST10:22 Kim Willsher, the Guardian’s Paris correspondent, has filed on the Paris conference, where the Iraqi president, Fuad Masum has denounced Isis as “terrorists” and “criminals” with a “destestable ideology”. Representatives of 30 countries gathered in Paris on Monday to draw up concrete and common proposals for fighting jihadis spreading terror in and around Iraq. Opening the conference at the French foreign ministry, president François Hollande urged western and Arab countries to engage “clearly, loyally and strongly at the side of the Iraqi authorities”. There was, he said, “no time to lose” in dealing with the threat from Isis. The gathering came just a day after Isis released a video showing a hooded jihadist killing of British aid worker David Haines, 44, the third western hostage to be decapitated by the group in a month. “Iraq’s combat against terrorism is also ours,” Hollande told those gathered. Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and his American counterpart John Kerry were also present. Shortly before the conference on Monday morning, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said aircraft will begin reconnaissance flights over Iraq on Monday, but added there was “no question of sending ground troops”. The Iraqi president Fuad Masum had appealed for rapid air intervention. He told those gathered in Paris that DAESH, the Arabic acronym for Isis, was open in its aims and called for concerted action to defeat what he described as “terrorists” and “criminals”. He added that Isis represented a “new form of terrorism”. “DAESH leaders are working at setting up a state and do not deny the existence of terrorist volunteers from European countries who may or may not have dual nationality...it goes beyond what we experienced before with al-Qaida,” said Fuad Masum. “These criminals are experts at the brainwashing of young people in these regions. They control and prepare them for terrorist actions. They use modern technology to spread propaganda and terror through the internet and social media networks. “Iraq is here today to show its will to stand up against this terrorism enemy that makes no distinction between Iraqis. We must sent a strong message to the orphaned mothers who have lost their children that we stand beside our people.” He said the “detestable ideology” of Isis went back to “obscurantist, bloodthirsty thinking that has its source in the darkness of history”. “This detestable ideology is the refusal of all diversity and pluralism...DAESH thinking can be stated quite simply: either you are with us or we will kill you.” 10.09am BST10:09 This Reuters story underlines the depth of support for jihadis in Malaysia, which has sparked concern for the government. The death of a Malaysian Islamist in Syria has sparked an outpouring of eulogies on social media, including from his former political party, underlining sympathy for the militants’ cause that is creating a security headache for the government. Lotfi Ariffin, a former activist in the Islamist PAS party that forms part of Malaysia’s opposition alliance, had attracted a large following on social media with regular posts of pictures, video and calls to jihad from the Syrian front line. He died on Sunday from wounds suffered last week in an assault by Syrian government forces which also killed another Malaysian fighter called Mohammad Fadhlan Shahidi, according to postings on Facebook by a third Malaysian militant in Syria. The Malaysians have said they were fighting for Ajnad al-Sham, a rebel group that operates near the capital Damascus and which has recently distanced itself from more militant groups such as Islamic State (IS) and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. Nik Abduh Nik Aziz, a member of the PAS central committee and the son of its spiritual leader, praised Lotfi as a “martyr” in a Facebook posting and also recounted a religious anecdote from what he said was Lotfi’s final visit to Malaysia last year when he helped with PAS flood-relief efforts. Security officials believe dozens of people from Muslim-majority Malaysia have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq, including for the hardline IS group. Police have arrested at least 19 suspected militants loyal to IS this year and say they uncovered their plan to bomb a Carlsberg brewery near the capital, Kuala Lumpur. Prime Minister Najib Razak condemned the IS militants in a statement in August, saying their actions were “counter to our faith, our culture, and our common humanity”. Najib’s ruling party has embraced more conservative Islamic positions in recent years, stepping up a drive to vilify Shia Muslims, for example. 9.57am BST09:57 Rowena Mason, my parliamentary colleague, has been listening to Col Bob Stewart (who served in Bosnia), on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. The Conservative MP on the defence committee who has served in the armed forces, said it was not desirable for the UK to send in troops to combat Isis - but that someone would ultimately have to do it as jihadis could not be defeated from the air. He told the Today programme: “Until someone goes in on the ground and destroys this evil organisation and these evil people that are doing so much filthy work, until that happens they will sustain themselves because they have got apparent access to banks, that when they took Mosul they took $1.2bn worth out of the banks. They have got oil which people will buy somewhere. So until actually someone goes in on the ground, because you cant win this from the air, someone has got to go and do the dirty work. I don’t want it to be us this time. The Americans don’t want it to be them. Let’s just hope we can find sufficient forces on the ground with the ability.” 9.54am BST09:54 Syria has again warned that air strikes on its territory without its cooperation would be a “big mistake” and a “big crime”. Faisal Mekdad, the Syrian deputy foreign minister insisted the government had been fighting Isis “from the beginning” and had never condoned its presence. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the strategy announced by President Barack Obma last week lacked “a lot of very important elements”. “Those who would like to fight terrorism cannot fight terrorism in Syria or in Iraq without coordinated actions with both governments and without a broader international coalition,” he said. “That should also take on board Russia, China, the Islamic Republic of Iran and all other countries. You cannot fight terrorism when you collaborate with those who created these terrorist groups including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and others.” He dismissed as “propaganda” the west’s claim that Isis was “useful” to the regime because of its role in fighting other rebel groups. Mekdad previously said Damascus wanted to team up with Washington because they were fighting the same enemy. Updated at 9.57am BST 9.46am BST09:46 Le Monde has this map of the coalition being assembled to confront Isis. On the face of it, it should be no contest as Isis is only a fledgling state with bits of Syria and Iraq, whereas the emerging coalition consists of about 40 countries. But as Ian Black, the Guardian’s Middle East editor, explains fighting with the US would require greater determination than Gulf countries have shown to tackle the jihadis. 9.37am BST09:37 French aircraft will begin reconnaissance flights over Iraq today, said Laurent Fabius, ahead of the conference. “We told the Iraqis we were available and asked them for authorisation (to fly over Iraq),” Fabius told France Inter radio, confirming that the first flights from a French base in Abu Dhabi would begin today. Reuters reports French officials as saying that the coalition plan must go beyond military and humanitarian action, arguing there must also be a political plan for once Isis has been weakened in Iraq. France has said it is ready to join US air strikes in Iraq but says legal and military limitations make it more difficult in Syria, where Isis have turned the city of Raqqa into their stronghold. 9.27am BST09:27 François Hollande said there was “no time to lose” in fighting jihadists as he called for a total support for moderate rebels in Syria at the start of an international conference in Paris. The Islamic State (Isis) jihadists posed a “global threat which needs a global response,” Hollande said. “There is no time to lose.” Hollande also called for complete support for moderate rebels in Syria fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, saying one should support those who “can make the necessary compromises”. Leaders and diplomats of more than 20 countries are meeting in Paris as the prospect of Britain joining military action against Isis moves closer. On Sunday, David Cameron led international condemnation of the ritualised killing of British aid worker David Haines and threats against a second UK citizen, Alan Henning. The British foreign minister, Philip Hammond, joined John Kerry, the US secretary of state, Iraqi, Arab and other western ministers in Paris to agree ways to support the new Baghdad government in the war against the jihadi group. On Sunday, he said he was “extremely encouraged” by pledges to build a broad alliance against Isis. Updated at 2.27pm BST |