(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Monday welcomed the efforts by the United States and other allies and partners to act against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) but ruled out the possibility of NATO joining in any military strikes against the group.
The so-called Islmaic State is "not a state, but a group of terrorists who are committing horrific atrocities against thousands of people across Iraq and Syria," he said in his farewell speech at an event organised by the think-tank Carnegie Europe here this afternoon.
"This group poses even more of a danger as it risks exporting terrorists to our countries. It also controls energy assets. And it is pouring oil on the fire of sectarianism already burning across the Middle East and North Africa," the NATO chief noted.
"The threat posed by the so-called Islamic State requires a military response to degrade and defeat this terrorist organisation. And it was the credible threat of military strikes against Syria that persuaded the Assad regime to give up their chemical weapons," he pointed out.
He, however, said that NATO has not been asked to join the coalition and stressed that the participation of regional countries against ISIS is very important.
Turning to Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Rasmussen said that a settlement of the Palestinian question "would solve many problems in the region." On Libya, he said the failure of the international community to establish a follow-on presence after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi was a "costly mistake." Commenting on the Ukraine crisis, he said: "Russia considers NATO, and the West more broadly, as an adversary. Russia has trampled all the rules and commitments that have kept peace in Europe and beyond since the end of the Cold War." "The pattern is clear. From Moldova to Georgia, and now in Ukraine, Russia has used economic pressure and military actions to produce instability. To manufacture conflicts," he said. "In response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine, we immediately reinforced our defence and deterrence. And at the NATO summit in Wales, we agreed our groundbreaking Readiness Action Plan," he pointed out.
Rasmussen called for an improvement in "our ability to help partners build their own security forces. If we train local security forces to take care of local security we can project stability without necessarily projecting large numbers of our own troops. So we must do more to help our partners defend themselves, find their own solutions, and prevent crises in their regions before they emerge. " "That is why at the Wales Summit we launched a new Defence Capacity Building initiative (earlier this month). As an initial step, we extended it to Georgia, Jordan, and Moldova. And if the new government requests it, NATO will consider a new defence capacity building mission for Iraq, as well.
"We have to be willing and able to use both soft and hard power to protect and promote our values. However, as we approach the end of over a decade of combat operations in Afghanistan, we see pressures to turn inward," he went on.
"We should continue to reach out to like-minded partners across the globe. A stronger global community of democracies would help us protect and promote freedom, democracy, free trade and a rules-based world order. Those are the values that forces of oppression violently oppose," he stressed.
Noting that this is his last month in office, the outgoing NATO Secretary-General said: "I have to say these past five years have been the busiest and most challenging - for NATO and for me personally," expressing confidence that his successor, the former Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg "will do a great job in keeping NATO strong."
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