Kerry in Cairo to drum up support for \\\'war\\\' on jihadists

FE Team | Published: September 14, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

CAIRO, Sept 13, (AFP): Secretary of State John Kerry held talks in Egypt on Saturday on the latest leg of a regional tour aimed at forging a coalition for a US-led war on jihadists in Iraq and Syria.
Egypt's formidable army is unlikely to take part in military action against the Islamic State jihadists (IS), but it has closely cooperated with the United States on counter-terrorism.
Washington says it is "at war" with IS and has named John Allen, a hawkish former commander in Afghanistan and Iraq, to coordinate its campaign against the movement that has seized large chunks of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
Kerry, who flew in to Cairo from Ankara, held talks with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi after meeting Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi.
Cairo's involvement in the coalition may help to soothe its relations with Washington, after the United States suspended-then restored-military aid following the army's ouster of elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
Morsi's successor, the former army chief Sisi, is fighting Islamist militants in the restive Sinai Peninsula who have expressed support for the Islamic State.
Having secured the backing of 10 Arab governments this week, Washington is seeking a stamp of approval for its campaign from Egypt and its religious institutions, which include the prestigious Al-Azhar university.
"One of the issues is to have their religious institutions to speak out against (IS), to talk about it in Friday sermons," said a US official travelling with Kerry.
"They (the Egyptians) are concerned about foreign fighters, an issue that has aggravated their domestic terrorism."
The official said that the desire to get Egypt on board would not stop Kerry pressing Sisi on human rights concerns, including the jailing of three Al-Jazeera television journalists and the imprisonment of secular dissidents.
Washington has said it is "at war" with IS, although Kerry has been reluctant to use the term, speaking instead of a "major counter-terrorism operation".
On Friday, French President Francois Hollande travelled to Iraq for talks ahead of an international conference on Iraq in Paris on Monday.
Kerry was in neighbouring Turkey, to address the threat posed by the jihadists, who seized much of the Sunni Arab heartland north and west of Baghdad in June.