Obama to set out 'IS' game plan
September 7, 2014
The US president made the pledge in an interview broadcast on American television network NBC on Sunday.
"I want the people to understand what the threat is and what we are going to do with it, we have the capacity to deal with it," said Obama, who is scheduled to meet with congressional leaders on Tuesday, before outlining his plan in a nationally televised address on Wednesday. He added that he also wanted the American people to understand that this was "not going to be an announcement about ground troops."
"This is not the equivalent of the Iraq War. What this is, is similar to the kinds of counterterrorism campaigns that we've been engaging in consistently over the last five, six, seven years," Obama stressed.
He was speaking on a day when US fighter jets launched air strikes against "Islamic State" (IS) fighters in Iraq's western Anbar province for the first time. The strikes targeted IS militants trying to take control of the Haditha dam from government troops.
Arab League urged to take action
Meanwhile, the head of the Arab League called on the grouping's 22 member states to confront IS extremists "militarily and politically."
Nabil Elaraby told the opening session of a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo that the rise of the self-proclaimed IS in Iraq threatened not only the authority of the state, but "its very existence and the existence of other states."
Several Arab foreign ministers spoke of the seriousness of the danger posed by IS fighters.
The Reuters news agency cited unnamed diplomatic sources who said the Arab League ministers would likely pass a resolution at their talks in support of US and Iraqi efforts to stop IS forces, who have declared a "caliphate" in the areas of Syria and Iraq, which they control.
The sources said the final draft would endorse a resolution passed by the United Nations Security Council last month, which urged member states to "act to suppress the flow of foreign fighters, financing and other support to Islamist extremist groups in Iraq and Syria."
pfd/msh (AP, dpa, Reuters)