WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State John Kerry has sought more powers from the Congress to fight against the Islamic State terror group, saying that the militant outfit needs to be stopped to ensure long-term stability of the broader Middle East region.
“One thing is certain. DAESH (Islamic State) will continue to spread until and unless it is stopped. So there should be no question that we with our partners have a moral duty and a profound international security interest and national security interest in stopping them,” Kerry said.
Kerry said IS is a threat to America’s security and interests.
“It poses an unacceptable danger to our personnel and facilities in Iraq and elsewhere.
It seeks to destroy both the short and long-term stability of the broader Middle East,” Kerry told members of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee during a Congressional hearing.
“And it is exacerbating a refugee crisis that has placed extraordinary economic and political burden on our friends and allies in the region,” he said.
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the “Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against ISIL,” Kerry said that no ground troops “does not mean we should preemptively bind the hands of the commander-in- chief or our commanders in the field in responding to scenarios and contingencies that are impossible to foresee.”
Kerry argued against geographical limitation.
“We do not think an AUMF should include a geographic limitation. We don’t anticipate conducting operations in countries other than Iraq or Syria, but to the extent that ISIL poses a threat to American interests and personnel in other countries, we would not want an AUMF to constrain our ability to use appropriate force against ISIL in those locations if necessary,” Kerry said.
“In our view, it would be a mistake to advertise to ISIL that there are safe havens for them outside of Iraq and Syria,” he said.
The US President, he said, has been crystal-clear that his policy is that US military forces will not be deployed to conduct ground combat operations against IS.
“With respect to duration, we can be sure that this confrontation is not going to be over quickly. We understand, however, the desire of many to avoid a completely open-ended authorization,” he said.
IS is a splinter group of the al-Qaeda which has distanced itself from the outfit, chiding it for its aggressive and brutal expansion.
Recently, reports said that militants from groups affiliated with once feared al-Qaeda network are abandoning their outfits to join the dreaded Islamist State. The influx has strengthened the IS.–PTI
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