Putting off for now a much-anticipated military offensive against the ISIS militants in their strongholds in Syria, US President Barack Obama has publicly admitted that he does not have a strategy yet on this score and signalled his plan for a “regional” approach in partnership with allies and countries of the region.
“In order for us to degrade ISIl over the long term, we’re going to have to build a regional strategy. Now, we’re not going to do that alone,” Obama told a White House news conference on Thursday, adding that he has deputed Secretary of State John Kerry to visit the region to build the coalition needed to meet this threat.
Faulting sections of the media for creating the impression that the US was about to launch a full-scale strategy to defeat ISIS, Obama said: “We don’t have a strategy yet. I think what I’ve seen in some of the news reports suggests that folks are getting a little further ahead of where we’re at than we currently are. And I think that’s not just my assessment, but the assessment of our military as well.”
Once a strategy is developed, Obama said he would consult with Congress and make sure that the voices of lawmakers are heard. “But there’s no point in me asking for action on the part of Congress before I know exactly what it is that is going to be required for us to get the job done,” he said in an apparent reference to demands voiced by several lawmakers that he should seek Congressional authorisation before any expansion of military action.
On the question of enlisting regional partners, Obama said he was encouraged that countries in the region that do not always agree on many things now “increasingly recognise the primacy of the threat that ISIl poses to all of them”. Focusing on the mounting violence in Ukraine, Obama attacked Russia for the worsening situation. Besides training, arming and funding pro-Russian separatists, Russia has also “deliberately and repeatedly violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine”, he said.
He, however, ruled out any US military intervention, telling a questioner: “What we’re doing is to mobilise the international community to apply pressure on Russia. But I think it is very important to recognise that a military solution to this problem is not going to be forthcoming.” Earlier in the day, at the UN Security Council, US Ambassador Samantha Power mounted a blistering attack on Russia accusing it of lying about its intervention, saying: “Russia has come before this Council to say everything except the truth. It has manipulated. It has obfuscated. It has outright lied.”