Germany, UK will not join anti-IS airstrikes

The foreign ministers of Germany and Britain said they would not be taking part in air strikes in Syria against the Islamic State militant group.

German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told a news conference in Berlin that Germany has not been asked to take part in the air strikes and would not be participating.

His British counterpart, Philip Hammond, said Britain “supports entirely the US approach of developing an international coalition” against the Islamic State, whom he described as “barbaric”, and said that, in terms of how to help such a coalition, “we have ruled nothing out”.

However, asked after his meeting with Steinmeier about US president Barrack Obama’s proposal for air strikes against IS in Syria, Hammond replied: “Let me be clear: Britain will not be taking part in any air strikes in Syria. We have already had that discussion in our parliament last year and we won’t be revisiting that position.”

He said the legal environment and “military permissiveness” in Syria and Iraq were very different.

Meanwhile, any foreign intervention in Syria would be an act of aggression unless it is approved by Damascus, a Syrian government minister said after the US said it was prepared to strike against Islamic State militants in the country.

“Any action of any type without the approval of Syrian government is an aggression against Syria,” said Ali Haidar, Minister of National Reconciliation Affairs.

Obama ordered the US into a broad military campaign to “degrade and ultimately destroy” Islamic State militants in two volatile Middle East nations, authorising air strikes inside Syria for the first time as well as an expansion of strikes in Iraq.

In a major reversal, Obama also said in a televised addressed to the nation that he was dispatching nearly 500 more US troops to Iraq to assist that country’s security forces.

He called on Congress to authorise a programme to train and arm rebels in Syria who are fighting both the IS group and Syrian president Bashar Assad.

Saudi Arabia, a crucial US ally in the Middle East, offered to host the training missions, part of Mr Obama’s effort to persuade other nations to join with the US in confronting the militants.

“This is not our fight alone,” Obama declared. “American power can make a decisive difference, but we cannot do for Iraqis what they must do for themselves, nor can we take the place of Arab partners in securing their region.”

“Our objective is clear: We will degrade and ultimately destroy Isil [IS] through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy.”

Obama adamantly ruled out the prospect of putting American troops in combat roles on the ground in Iraq or Syria.