Kerry Says U.S.-led Coalition Wants to Escalate Fight Against Islamic State by Karen DeYoung, Washington Post
Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Thursday that “the tide has turned” in the battle against the Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria and that the U.S.-led coalition wants to do more against the terror group “and we want to do it faster.”
Kerry, speaking at the end of a Washington meeting of coalition defense and foreign ministers, said he was “hopeful” that a U.S.-proposed plan for counterterrorism coordination with Russia in Syria will bear fruit, but “I can’t say I’m confident, because there are very tough issues that are being resolved” in ongoing U.S.-Russia talks.
“We’re going steadily and carefully down a road without making promises in public that we can’t keep, because I think people are already frustrated enough” by Syria, Kerry said of the still-secret plan.
Still, he said, “it’s possible that if everybody does what they’ve said they’re prepared to do that this could change what is happening in Syria.”
Turkish ministers did not attend the meeting, saying they had to attend to ongoing upheaval following a failed coup attempt. But Kerry said Turkey’s deputy foreign minister had made “a
very strong statement” to the closed-door session here that events at home would not affect his country’s commitment to the coalition…