AFP, 7 Sep 2014 – President Barack Obama has vowed to outline a long-awaited strategy against Islamic State jihadists on Wednesday, after Washington expanded its month-long air campaign to Iraq’s Sunni Arab heartland.
The new strikes deepen Washington’s involvement in the conflict and were a significant escalation for Obama, who made his political career opposing the war in Iraq and pulled out US troops in 2011.
Obama announced that he will make a speech on Wednesday to lay out his “game plan” to deal with the group.
“I’m preparing the country to make sure that we deal with a threat from” IS, Obama said in an interview aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
He said he would not be announcing the return of US ground troops to Iraq and would focus instead on a “counter-terrorism campaign” similar to other efforts over the last few years.
“We are going to systematically degrade their capabilities. We’re going to shrink the territory that they control. And ultimately we’re going to defeat them,” Obama said.
Obama outlined a plan for a broad international coalition to combat IS at a NATO summit on Friday, an announcement welcomed by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
“This is basically our fight… but we need the support — our capacity is limited, and we need the support to enhance our capacity,” Zebari told AFP.
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi meanwhile called on the bloc’s 22 members to confront IS militarily as well as politically.
“What is needed is a clear decision for a comprehensive confrontation, militarily and politically,” Arabi said at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo.