(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) US Secretary of State John Kerry thanked British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond in person on Wednesday for the commitment Britain has made to the international coalition "that will degrade and defeat ISIL over the next months and the period ahead." The British Royal Air Force is now conducting airstrikes on ISIL positions in Iraq, and Britain has provided some of the strongest humanitarian support in Iraq - more than USD 36 million in water, shelter, food and medicine - to save the lives of innocent people, said Kerry.
"We have both seen our hostages brutally murdered in barbaric acts that shock the conscience of the world, but the response of both of our countries is not to wilt, it is to fight, to push back against this barbarity," Kerry said. "And we are doing so." The atrocities being committed by ISIL also are being felt by ordinary Muslims in Iraq and Syria every day of every week, Hammond said.
"It is clear that tackling ISIL requires a strong military response from the international community, but that has to be combined with a clear diplomatic plan to support the new Iraqi government's inclusive program, to hamper ISIL's access to funds, fighters and resources, and the political strategy to combat the poisonous ideology that underpins ISIL, and counter those trying to spread sectarian violence and hatred across the region and beyond," he added.
As horrific as it is to watch what is happening in Kobane, "it is also important to remember you have to step back and understand the strategic objective and where we have begun over the course of the last weeks," Kerry said. "We are literally just coming out of the UN meeting at which we announced the coalition, literally have just been deploying the first efforts to liberate, a few weeks ago, Sinjar mountain, the siege on Amerli, the Haditha Dam, the Mosul Dam. And we are very successful in those efforts. And the Iraqi forces within Iraq are standing up and have had some successes, some setbacks too, but some successes over the course of the last days." The anti-ISIL effort "is a structure that is evolving on a daily basis," Kerry said. "And notwithstanding the crisis in Kobane, the original targets of our efforts have been the command-and-control centers, the infrastructure. We are trying to deprive ISIL of the overall ability to wage this, not just in Kobane, but throughout Syria and into Iraq.
"So I think you will see over the next hours, days, the fullness of that strategy evolving and decisions being made about the Turks and others as to exactly what role they are going to play," Kerry said.
Hammond said that just as Britain waits to see exactly how Turkey will make its contribution to the coalition, so Britain "is still considering whether the right way for us to make a contribution... is to extend our military permissions to operations in Syria. If we conclude that is the right thing to do, we will ask the British Parliament for approval of that decision." Responding to French President Francois Hollande's call for supporting the Turks' idea of a buffer zone along its border with Syria, Hammond said, "We would have to explore with other allies and partners what is meant by a buffer zone, how such a concept would work, but I certainly would not want to rule it out at this stage." Kerry said the buffer zone idea is "worth looking at very, very closely." A million-plus refugees have crossed the Syrian border and another 180,000 or so were driven out in the last few days from Kobane, Kerry said.
"This should not be a problem that is thrust onto Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, where they bear an incredible burden with respect to their societies," he said. "And if Syrian citizens can return to Syria and be protected in an area across the border, there is a lot that would commend that. But at the same time, you would have to guarantee safety, guarantee there would not be attacks by the (Syrian) government, other kinds of things would have to happen".
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