PARIS: The United States urged Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates yesterday to do what they can to encourage Iraq to form an inclusive government to tackle Islamist militant forces threatening to tear apart the country.
In a frenetic round of meetings in Paris, Secretary of State John Kerry briefed his counterparts about US intelligence-gathering on potential targets in Iraq aimed at beating back the insurgency, according to senior State Department officials.
He made clear Washington had not decided whether to launch air strikes “but reserves the right to do so,” the officials told reporters.
The foreign ministers of the three Arab states expressed concerns with the current Shia Muslim-dominated leadership in Iraq, the officials said. Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has long had chilly relations with Sunni Muslim-led Gulf states, which view him as too close to Shia Iran. “We share concerns and we are as focused as they are on making sure the next Iraqi government is inclusive and is formed in the near future,” a US official said. “While there is no silver lining in a process like that, we do hope it infuses a sense of urgency into the process.”
REUTERS
