Paris: The US-led coalition against the Islamic State is doubling down on its strategy to fight the extremists, despite the radical group's recent conquests on both sides of the border between Iraq and Syria.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi pressed his case on Tuesday for more support from the 25 countries in the coalition at a one-day Paris conference on fighting the militant group, organized within weeks of the fall of the Iraqi city of Ramadi and the Syrian city of Palmyra.
The coalition has mustered a mix of airstrikes, intelligence sharing and assistance for Iraqi ground operations against the extremists.
Al-Abadi said more was needed, his country reeling after troops pulled out of Ramadi without a fight and abandoned US-supplied tanks and weapons.
"We will redouble our efforts," said Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who was leading the delegation after US Secretary of State John Kerry broke his leg in a cycling accident in eastern France over the weekend.
IS, Blinken said, "stands for nothing and depends on people who will fall for anything."
He said the US would make it easier for Iraq to obtain new weapons, after al-Abadi said the sanctions-hit countries of Iran and Russia were potentially important arms suppliers. Blinken also said the US would send anti-tank rockets to Iraqi forces to use against the armored suicide truck bombs that have devastated and terrified Iraqi forces.
"Armament and ammunition, we haven't seen much. Almost none. We're relying on ourselves, but fighting is very hard this way," al-Abadi said today before the conference.
Iran and Russia are not part of the US-led coalition and they did not attend today's conference, nor was there a representative from Syria. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Iraq's problems wouldn't end until Syria's government changes.
"Stabilisation of Iraq cannot be achieved if there is not a political transition in Syria," he said. Just as important is political reconciliation within Iraq, notably between the Shiite-dominated government and disaffected Sunnis, who may not sympathise with IS but who have little love for the country's leadership.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the coalition is "under no illusion that a victory by military means will be easy and also we know that winning peace will be difficult."
"That's why we talked today not just about the necessary military means, but also about what's needed to bring stability to the areas that have been freed from ISIS troops," he said, using another acronym for IS.
Al-Abadi said his government was making progress, although a measure to increase the Sunni presence in Iraq's security forces has stalled in the legislature. Acknowledging the loss of Ramadi, al-Abadi said Iraq's military needs more intelligence and more action from international allies. Within a week of the Iraqi city's fall to IS, the extremists captured the historic Syrian city of Palmyra.
