Egypt Taking Up Fight against ISIS says Kerry

CAIRO - US Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday that Egypt was at the forefront in the fight against terrorism, the end of his regional tour designed to garner maximum support to fight the jihadists in Syria and Iraq .

ISIS flag and Fighter

While the United States are working hard to establish an international coalition to by President Barack Obama to "weaken" and to "destroy" the jihadists of the Islamic State (EI), Kerry ended Saturday in Cairo a mission that took him to Baghdad, Amman, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Ankara.

He left in the evening Cairo to Paris where he will attend Monday at an international conference on Iraq focused on the fight against the growing threat of the Sunni extremist group which occupies large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria, where he book multiple atrocities - rapes, executions, persecutions.

After meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Kerry stressed the essential role of Egypt in the fight against EI.

"As an intellectual and cultural capital of the Islamic world, Egypt has a critical role to play in exposing the ideology (EI) spreads," he has said, highlighting the importance of prestigious institution in Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar, in this fight.

In practice, according to an American diplomat, Washington hopes that religious institutions in Egypt "were against IE and talk about it in Friday sermons" in mosques.

Egypt is among the ten Arab countries given at a meeting Thursday in Jeddah with Mr. Kerry, commitment, possibly including military, to antijihadistes coalition. It should not however be involved militarily.

"Egypt is at the forefront in the fight against terrorism, in particular the fight against extremist groups in Sinai," said Kerry, referring to attacks by groups saying draw against Al Qaeda security forces in the Egyptian peninsula east.

Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry said his country was watching "closely links between terrorist groups."

Rebel advance on the Golan

Kerry also had a discussion "frank" with Mr. Sissi about human rights, excluding any bargaining on this issue.

Washington regularly denounces violations of human rights in Egypt where power suppresses all opposition, secular as Islamist but also defends its military alliance with the country back several decades.

During the passage of Kerry in Turkey yesterday, the authorities reiterated their refusal to participate militarily in the coalition, fearing to jeopardize the lives of 46 Turks retained by EI in Iraq.

After long hesitation, President Barack Obama urged to act after decapitation by EI of two American journalists kidnapped in Syria, reported on September 10 its strategy for "weaken and ultimately destroy" the group.

He announced an extension of the American air campaign in Iraq, where 1,600 American soldiers will be deployed in total to support the Iraqi armed forces in terms of equipment, training and information.

Mr. Obama also said he was ready to hit the IR into Syria and pledged to boost military aid to Syrian rebels fighting moderates both EI and diet.

The latter is about to lose the benefit of rebel control of a second province in the country, that of Qouneitra on the part of the Israeli-occupied Golan not, according to NGOs.

Conference Monday in Paris

In this "war" against the IU, as the designated White House, retired Gen. John Allen, key man of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, was responsible for coordinating the coalition.

The Paris conference will allow each of the twenty participating countries "to be much more specific about what he can or wants to do" to fight against the IU, said a diplomat. But "we will not say who is going to hit where and when."

Ally of the Syrian regime, Iran, that there was not invited, said he did not want anyway attend a "conference-show."

In preparation for this meeting, French President Francois Hollande on Friday visited Iraq, where he promised to help "further militarily" this country, whose troops poorly trained fail to cope with and benefit from EI Using the Kurdish and Shia fighters, in addition to American air support.

France, like the United States already provides weapons to Kurdish forces, and humanitarian assistance to hundreds of thousands of displaced people who fled to Kurdistan (northern) jihadist progression.