Kerry urges Turkey to play bigger anti-ISIL role
September 13, 2014, 10:10 am

Kerry appears to have made little progress in persuading Turkish President Erdogan to play a larger role in an anti-ISIL coalition [Xinhua]

But he is likely to face an uphill battle as Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and President Tayyip Erdogan are reluctant to take any action that could jeopardize efforts to release at least 47 Turkish consular staff held by ISIL forces in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

For the moment, NATO member Turkey has responded to Kerry’s requests by saying that the “two countries will continue to fight terrorist organizations in the region as in the past”.

Turkish defence officials say they have boosted security along their expansive borders with Iraq and Syria. They are unlikely to provide vital air bases for US air raids against ISIL targets in northern Iraq.

The US will have to resort to air bases in the Kurdish Regional Government’s capital in Erbil, northern Iraq.

The US has in recent weeks stepped up its aerial bombardment of IS positions in northern and western Iraq, opening the way for the Iraqi army and Kurdish peshmerga to retake towns seized by the extremist group in June and July.

The Baghdad government’s hold on Iraq began to unravel when fighters belonging to a coalition of Islamist militant groups operating under the ISIL banner seized the ethnically mixed city of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, in June.

Army troops and security forces abandoned their posts at government installations and tore off their uniforms, at the time, and several military operations to recapture lost territory have ended in defeat for Baghdad.

With their fighters entrenched in Mosul and most of Nineveh, the former Al-Qaeda affiliates – who have maintained a brutal campaign against the forces of President Bashar Al-Assad in neighbouring Syria – now effectively control a third of Iraq and Syria.

Arab coalition

Last week, US President Barack Obama pledged to form a coalition of allied nations for a “counter-terrorism campaign” to pursue, “degrade and ultimately destroy” ISIL forces “wherever they may exist”.

“[This campaign] will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground … a strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines,” Obama said in a televised speech to the American people.

On Thursday, 10 Arab states including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan and others pledged their support for the US anti-ISIL campaign.

While they are unlikely to provide troops to assist the Iraqi army, they will restrict financing efforts and recruitment drives that have filled ISIL’s ranks in recent months.

Other countries, such as France, Australia and the UK, say they will provide the Kurdish peshmerga with advanced weapons to deter the threat from ISIL.

Source: Agencies