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| Islamic State Fight: Arab States Reluctant to Coalition with US | |
| 2014-09-10 | |
BEIRUT -- Stitching together a broad coalition to tackle the extremist Islamic State group hinges on overcoming the reluctance of U.S. allies in the Middle East who are deeply frustrated with a White House they believe has been naive and weak on Syria's civil war.
The United States is mounting a major campaign to get allies on board. Secretary of State John Kerry will visit the region and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was in Turkey on Monday to lobby the NATO ally. But it is not always an easy sell. "Trust is so low, especially in the Gulf region, for Obama's leadership quality and the way he manages foreign policy. I don't think any country is going to put its hand up or neck out by accepting an alliance with the U.S. that easily," said Mustafa Alani, the director of the security and defense department at the Gulf Research Center in Geneva. That is not to say that Sunni states in the region won't ultimately join the U.S. in the campaign against the extremists who have seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria, or that they don't view the militants as a threat. But it suggests, analysts say, that the U.S. will have to do some convincing -- and likely enticing -- to get them into the fight. "These countries can offer a lot, but I think any cooperation here is going to be conditional," Alani said. "They are not going to jump in the pool for nothing." U.S. allies in the Middle East are among the most threatened by the Islamic State group, whose rampage across northern and western Iraq in June rattled officials in capitals across the region. Jordan and Saudi Arabia, both of whom suddenly found Islamic State fighters on their doorstep, have dispatched military reinforcements to their borders to boost security. On Monday, the Arab League agreed to take immediate measures, either individually or collectively, to combat the Islamic State group and other extremists on the political, defense, security and legal levels. But the member states did not explicitly back American military action. | |
| Posted by:Javimble Fleamp4756 |
| #1 Not to argue that the list of nation's won't change, but IIRC the only Muslim country named by the MSM-Net has been TURKEY. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2014-09-10 23:57 |