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The United States on Thursday said that it is opposed to a Syrian role in resolving the turmoil in Iraq after the Syrian government had carried out air strikes against the militants.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is facing insurgents from Syria who are sweeping across his nation, told the BBC that the Syrian air force had, earlier in the week, struck at insurgents on the Syrian side of the Iraq-Syria border as the conflict seemed to escalate.
Marie Harf, spokeswoman for the US State Department did not confirm the strikes, but said that the United States firmly believes that any military action by Syrian President Bashar Assad will not be “in any way helpful to Iraq’s security”.
“Iraq’s security situation cannot and should not be resolved by the Assad regime, by air strikes from the Assad regime or by militias funded and supported by other countries in the region stepping in”, she said.
US President Barack Obama, who has been opposed to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, last week offered 300 military advisers to aid Iraq in their bid to push back the insurgents, but has been opposed to larger US involvement. He has also blamed the Iraqi premier for alienating minorities. Obama also resisted calls for US intervention in Syria against Bashar Assad, who has ruthlessly dealt with the rebellion waged against him by both moderate and hardline rebels.
The chaos comes in the midst of the Obama administration seeking to repair its ties with Iran, a predominantly Shi’ite state which has supported both Maliki, who is also a Shi’ite, and Assad, who belongs to a heterodox Alawite sect.
Harf added that, unlike Syria, Iran “could play a constructive role” in Iraq if “it did things to promote an inclusive government” and not promote a sectarian agenda. US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday will go to Saudi Arabia for consultations with the kingdom – the Sunni monarchy is strongly critical of both Maliki and Assad.