WASHINGTON: The US President Barack Obama has said that the United States will not allow Islamic militants to create a caliphate in Syria and Iraq.
“We’re not going to let them create some caliphate through Syria and Iraq,” the president said in an interview with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.
Obama also clarified that the United States was not interested in being the Iraqi air force.
The US president said that the Iraqi leaders must find a way to build a responsible government that answers to the people. He said that they must find ways of keeping their country unified in the fight against the militants, otherwise more US boots on the ground in Iraq will not solve the problems.
“We will be your partners, but we are not going to do it for you,” Obama advised. “We’re not sending a bunch of US troops back on the ground to keep a lid on things.
“We cannot do for them what they are unwilling to do for themselves,” he added.
On Thursday, the US president authorized airstrikes against the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in northern Iraq to prevent the slaughter of religious minorities and to protect US interests in the region.
