Kerry: ‘Nearly Every Country on Earth’ May Join Our ISIS Fight
“President Obama, a few hours from now, will lay out his strategy for taking America, Iraq, the region, and the world forward with respect to this challenge. We need to continue to drive this strategy over these next days with intensity. Already, we and nearly 40 other countries, even as I speak now, are already contributing military, humanitarian and other assistance to aid the campaign against ISIL.
"And to date, with the help of our international partners, the United States has launched more than 150 air strikes in order to weaken ISIL and protect the innocent people that it seeks to harm, and also to specifically help to break the siege in Amerli, to help to break the siege of the Mosul Dam, and at Sinjar Mountain, with success in each of those instances. In addition, together with willing allies, the international community has air dropped food and medical supplies to Iraqi families, including the 1.8 million people who have been displaced due to ISIL’s brutality.
"Today, I can tell you that we’ll be providing another 48 million to U.N. agencies, other international organizations, and NGOs, that are working tirelessly to save lives and to alleviate suffering. When the world hears from President Obama this evening, he will lay out with great specificity each component of a broad strategy in order to deal with ISIL, and in the days ahead, I’ll be meeting with leaders from across the region and beyond, in order to discuss how can we best build upon the work that has already been done and assemble the broadest possible coalition for this fight.
"Nearly every country on Earth could have an ability and an interest to join us in this effort, whether by providing military assistance, by helping to track and stop the flow of foreign fighters, helping to track and stop the flow of money. All of these are things that sustain ISIL’s terrorism, and all of them are things that are subject to impact by other countries in the world. Also, those countries and many others, particularly in the Muslim world, can join together in defining the real Islam and making it clear there’s no legitimacy whatsoever within ISIL for any of the claims they make with respect to a religious foundation for caliphate, their state, or for their actions.
"It’s necessary for moderate, reasonable people around the world to reputuate the distortion of Islam that ISIL speaks to spread and to contribute as they do to the urgent humanitarian relief effort that is required because of their barbarity. We all have an interest in supporting the new government of Iraq at this particular critical juncture. The coalition at the heart of our global strategy, I assure you, will continue to grow and deepen in the days ahead.”
