Iraq must step up and take the lead to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria terror group, National Security Adviser Susan Rice said, ruling out committing U.S. combat troops to the effort.
“This time we’re doing it differently. The Iraqis have to be in the lead,” said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday. “They have to have the capacity and the will to hold territory against [the Islamic State] on their own.”
Rice brushed back criticisms that the Obama administration’s strategy to repel the Islamic State, including airstrikes and arming and training Syrian rebels, isn’t enough, saying progress is “not going to happen overnight.
“There are going to be good days, bad days, victories and setbacks as the Iraqis themselves take this fight to [the Islamic State],” she said.
Rice said the administration has no plans to tweak or reassess its strategy, which she called a “long-term effort.
“This is very early days of the strategy,” she said. “We’ll do our part from the air and in many other respects in terms of building up the capacity of the Iraqis in the Syrian opposition, the moderates.”
She added the U.S. is “not going to be in a ground war again in Iraq. It’s not what is required by the circumstances that we face.”
Leaders in Iraq’s besieged Anbar province on Saturday pleaded for U.S. ground troops to help push back encroaching Islamic militant fighters. But Rice said U.S. military commanders haven’t recommended such a move.
“That has not come up the chain to anybody at the White House. And I don’t anticipate that it will,” she said.
Rice also refuted suggestions from former Secretary of State James Baker that Iran may be secretly aiding the U.S. in its struggle against the Islamic State.
“We are not in coordination or direct consultation with the Iranians about any aspect of the fight against” the Islamic State, she said.
Rice went on to praise the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic militants, saying the 60-country force includes “all of our core allies in the Gulf region of the Arab world.
“It’s gratifying that countries from all over the world share the same perception of the threat that [the Islamic State] poses,” she said. “Iran may or may not be among those, but they are not a part of our coalition.”
But earlier Sunday Sen. Bernie Sanders, a liberal Vermont independent, accused Middle East nations — and particularly Saudi Arabia — of not doing enough to help the U.S. and its allies snuff out the Islamic terrorist group.
“This is a regional crisis, and I think the people of America are getting sick and tired of the world and the region, Saudi Arabia and the other countries, saying, ‘Hey, we don’t have to do anything about it,’ ” Sanders told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“The question that we have got to ask is, why are the nations in the region not more actively involved?”
