Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Iraq on Wednesday to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and other officials to congratulate them on taking steps to form a more inclusive government.
Kerry’s presence in Baghdad will keep the pressure on the fledgling government to abide by their commitments to continue giving Sunnis, Kurds and other minorities meaningful roles. It also will give him a chance to discuss his efforts to enlist other regional governments in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Describing ISIS as a cancer spreading throughout the entire Middle East, al-Abadi after his meeting with Kerry called on the international community to mobilize to protect the stability of the region.
“Of course our role is to defend our country, but the international community is responsible to protect Iraq and protect Iraqis in the whole region,” he said.
Al-Abadi also repeated his pledge to keep working to ensure his government is inclusive.
“We can do this job properly…to include all people in the Iraqi society form all sections of this society in this government,” he said.
Kerry applauded Iraq for the steps it has already taken to fight ISIS on the ground, as well as al-Abadi’s commitment to reconstituting the Iraqi military and instituting broad reforms necessary to “bring every segment of Iraqi society to the table.”
“We’re very encouraged by the comments you’ve made here today and by your commitment to do this, the boldness with which you moved to bring the government together quickly and meet the deadline, which has never happened before, is its own signal,” Kerry said. “So I’m grateful to you.”
Kerry repeated his commitment to work with al-Abadi and a broad coalition of countries to take on ISIS, whose barbaric rampage across Syria and Iraq he said is “unacceptable by any standard anywhere in the world.”
