Kerry flies in for Mideast talks on tackling jihadists

Momentum built for a new US-led campaign against jihadists in Iraq and Syria on Wednesday as US Secretary of State John Kerry flew into the Middle East to forge a regional coalition.
With his top diplomat dispatched to woo Arab nations, President Barack Obama was set to unveil a long-awaited strategy against the Islamic State in an address to the nation later Wednesday.
Washington has carried out a month of air strikes against Islamic State fighters in Iraq, but despite the Pentagon's acknowledgement that the group cannot be defeated without action against it in Syria, Obama has so far held back.
Resistance against the jihadists' advance into northern Syria from its bases in the east took a major blow late Tuesday with a massive bomb blast that killed at least 28 leaders of the largest rebel alliance fighting IS.
Washington has pinned its hopes of pegging back IS on rebel groups opposed to the jihadists, baulking at cooperation of any sort with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad whose overthrow it has supported since 2011.
The US-backed fightback against IS in Iraq has been buoyed by the formation of a new government on Monday that Washington hopes will be more acceptable both to Iraq's alienated Sunni Arab minority and Sunni governments around the region.
Sunni heavyweight Saudi Arabia is to host talks on Thursday between Kerry and ministers from 10 Arab states and Turkey on joint action against the Islamic State (IS) group.
Iraq's campaign to claw back territory it lost in the Sunni Arab heartland north and west of Baghdad in June, and US efforts to engage Sunni governments in the fightback, have been complicated by regional sectarian politics.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states have had deeply strained relations with the Shiite-led government in Baghdad, with each side blaming the other for the jihadists' gains.
But their foreign ministers will be among those attending Thursday's talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah, along with top diplomats from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq itself.
They will address "terrorism in the region, extremist organisations behind it and means of fighting them," Saudi state media said.
The Arab League, which has stopped short of explicitly backing ongoing US air strikes against IS, also drummed up regional support for the fight.
- 'Broadest possible coalition' -
Ahead of his visit, Kerry vowed to build "the broadest possible coalition of partners around the globe to confront, degrade and ultimately defeat (IS).
"Almost every single country has a role to play in eliminating the (IS) threat and the evil that it represents," he said.
France is to host an international conference on peace and security in Iraq next week and President Francois Hollande will make a preparatory visit to Baghdad on Friday, his office announced.
Britain, which has been carrying out reconnaissance flights in support of the US air campaign, announced it would ship $2.6 million (two million euros) worth of weapons to Kurdish forces fighting the jihadists in northern Iraq.
Notably absent from Jeddah will be the Syrian government -- facing a three-and-a-half-year uprising backed by many of the participants -- and its regional ally Iran.
Damascus views itself as a bulwark against the militants, but Washington has ruled out any cooperation for fear of alienating Syria's Sunni majority, who largely support the uprising.
The battle lines in Syria have become increasingly complex with the jihadists pitted against government forces, rival rebels and Kurdish militia.
A massive bombing in Idlib province in the northwest late Tuesday killed at least 28 anti-IS rebel chiefs, including Ahrar al-Sham leader Hassan Abbud, in a major blow to the resistance against the jihadists, the rebels said.
Brussels-based think-tank the International Crisis Group warned that advances on the ground by both the jihadists and the Damascus regime "threaten the viability of the mainstream opposition as a whole."
It said the rebels' "defeat... would be an unprecedented boon to IS and would render a negotiated resolution of the conflict all but impossible".
An opinion poll published on Tuesday suggested 65 percent of Americans would approve extending US air strikes against IS into Syria.
But the ICG warned "the resulting boost to IS recruitment might outweigh the group’s tactical losses."
After months of wrangling, Iraq's new Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi finally formed a government on Monday that Washington said had "the potential to unite all of Iraq's diverse communities".
Kerry described the new government as a "major milestone" in efforts to woo the Sunni Arab minority away from IS after the divisive rule of Abadi's predecessor, Nuri al-Maliki.
Shiite Iran -- alongside the United States, the key outside power in Iraq -- said it hoped the change of government in Baghdad would help turn the tide against IS.
"I hope that during your new mandate, complete calm will return to your country," President Hassan Rouhani said.
In reality, the new government does not constitute quite the sea-change hailed by Washington.
It remains dominated by Iraq's Shiite Arab majority. The Kurds hold fewer ministries than before and the Sunni Arabs relatively minor ones, while the divisive Maliki becomes one of three vice presidents.
Source: AFP