US Secretary of State John Kerry is in the neighboring country of Jordan to discuss the ISIS threat and if there's a way to contain it all. Our Jim S. is traveling with the Secretary. So Jim, what is Kerry saying about this a very day amidst crisis right now.
Well, he's saying he's extremely concerned. We just learned tonight that as we arrived in Jordan, those ISIS militants are just 70 miles now from the Jordanian border. They expend eh the land that they control inside Iraq. Now as we met with Secretary Kerry a number of times on this trip, he's been repeating two goals of his diplomacy in the Middle East now. One is to get the message across not just to the Iraqis but to Iraq's neighbors that this is a regional problem; it's not just an Iraqi or a Syrian problem. And the other one is that their focus is on a political solution to this, to make this problem go away, released not just military actions by the US and others but it is about getting a unified Iraqi government that represents all of the sections inside Iraq – Sunni, Shiite and Kurd and with great urgency. Here's what Secretary Kerry had to say just in Cairo as he spoke alongside with the Egyptian Foreign Minister earlier today.
No country is safe from that kind of spread of terror, and none of us can afford to leave that entity with a safe haven which would become the base for terror against anyone and all, not only in the region but outside of the region as well.
What, I think, Secretary Kerry says he is not doing is pushing the Shiite Prime Minister if Iraq Nouri al-Maliki out. There's been a lot of speculations that as he's lost confidence not only with the Iraqi Sunnis and Kurds but also with international leaders, American leaders, that he might be coming to the region to move him along on his away. He has said it's not the focus; that the US has not the business of choosing or selecting Iraqi leaders. That's up to Iraq. But he did make the point that Iraq needs a leader right now who can unify the country and that's something it hasn't had in the, in the past several years.
At meantime, a neighbor of Iraq, Iran's Supreme Leader coming out today against US intervention in Iraq, saying Iraq can take care of itself. So US military advisors are set to arrive in Iraq very soon if only that paperwork would be delivered on how is all of this going to, I guess, work together.
Well, we've been asking about Iran, and it is interesting as we spoke to US officials on this trip. They say they are not sure yet what Iran's intentions are inside Iraq. They said that if Iran's intentions are shared, that they also want a unified government that represents all the sections not just Shiite of, Iran of course is a Shiite country, you know, it is Secretary Kerry has made this point, other US officials, that if Iran function inside Iraq is purely to help the Shiite, the Shiites battles the Sunnis, then, then the US is not interested; but if they are interested in, along with the US and the other neighbors, of pushing for a more unified representative government, then, you know that's something that they can talk about. One thing that they've also ruled out with Iran is any sort of military coordination on the ground, US forces coordinating with Iranian forces. But they are willing to talk as long as they have a shared goal here.
Mm, all right, Jim S. – thanks so much – traveling with the Secretary.