US Navy Warplane
26 allies of the U.S. including the United Kingdom, Korea and 10 major Muslim countries including Egypt and Saudi Arabia have pledged to provide either humanitarian or military aid in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Ever since President Obama announced this plan for a joint task force to combat the Islamic State along with its NATO and other allies, other nations have been pledging cooperation in light of this militant organization which is now considered a threat to any nation.
The U.S. State Secretary John Kerry met with representatives from its allies at a conference in Paris on the 15th to discuss specific tactics against the Islamic State. Probably the largest breakthrough in this plan was having major Muslim nations on America’s side. Earlier this year, Muslim nations such as Saudi Arabia and even Indonesia (which holds the largest Islamic population in the world) only declared that ISIS’ beliefs are a threat to the rest of the Sunni Muslim states and they supported America’s air strikes against the jihadist group. However, Saudi Arabia and 9 other Muslim states including UAE (United Arab Emirates), and Kuwait have pledged that not only they would support the operation with finance and humanitarian aid, but even military support.
There have been some disappointments in the process of building this coalition, however. One key Muslim nation that decided it would not directly take part in the fight against the extremist militants was Iran. Mohammad Javad Zariff, Iran’s Foreign Minister called ISIS a “dangerous phenomenon”, comparing the organization to Frankenstein at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington today. Zariff announced that Iran had not been invited to the conference in Paris and expressed some disappointment, noting that Iran may be able to play a key role if they were ever to negotiate with the militants.
The minister added however, the Islamic State cannot be defeated with only air strikes, reflecting the opinion of many in the U.S. administration as well as the Republican Party. However, in his address earlier this month President Obama had stated U.S. ground forces will not be employed as a part of this joint operation.
Meanwhile, Korea also pledged to cooperate as a member of this coalition. However, Gwan-jin Kim, the Minster for National Security told reporters on his trip to Washington that it is uncertain that whether Korea will be militarily supporting the coalition. If the U.S. continues to rely mostly on air strikes, then realistically there is not much the Korea military could do to further intensify the attacks from the air, since Korea does not possess the aircraft necessary to carry out such operations. Minister Kim, according to Yonhap News noted that Korea may have to dispatch ground battle groups to Iraq if the U.S. were to dispatch its own ground forces first.
However, during a military debriefing at the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida President Barrack Obama officially confirmed once again that the U.S. will not be dispatching ground forces to Iraq.
