Arab countries should resist funding Sunni fighters in what is turning into a cross-border war between Iraq and Syria because that support eventually could help the fast-spreading insurgency in Iraq, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday. Kerry said the Islamic State of Iraq and the levant has become a threat to the entire Mideast, and perhaps beyond.
“This is a critical moment,” Kerry said after meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. He said the group is a “threat not only to Iraq, but to the entire region.”
The US is looking for ways to work with Mideast nations, most of them led by Sunni Governments, to curb the group’s growth. Some officials in the United States and the Mideast have suggested privately that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki must leave office before Iraq’s Sunnis will believe their concerns will be heard by the Shia-led Government in Baghdad. But al-Maliki has showed no indication he is willing to step down, and his political party won the most votes in national elections in April.