Turkey to add forces to fight ISIS in Syria

MUNICH - Turkey will supply ground forces to an anti-Islamic State coalition in Syria and will allow Saudi Arabian strike missions against the militants from its air bases, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview published Saturday.

The Saudis have already visited the Turkish base at Incirlik, where U.S. warplanes are launching attacks against the Islamic State, in preparation for the new deployment, Cavusoglu told the pro-government Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak after speaking at an international security conference here.

Turkey's commitment comes after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates said they would supply Special Forces troops as part of a force under the U.S.-led coalition. Defense Secretary Ash Carter appealed to coalition partners last week in Brussels to provide more resources. U.S. Special Operations forces are already working in Syria.

Cavusoglu emphasized that no strategy for joint ground operations has yet been presented to the coalition. "If we have such a strategy, then Turkey and Saudi Arabia may launch an operation from the land," he said. Referring to criticism that Turkey has been "unwilling" to join the fight against the Islamic State, he said his government has been "pushing for more tangible suggestions."

In a speech to the conference Saturday, Secretary of State John Kerry said defeating the Islamic State "is not an overnight proposition. It's going to take time. But I tell you this," Kerry said, "President Obama is determined that it will not take too much time. And we welcome the recent announcements a number of countries have made to intensify their support."

Kerry also devoted part of his remarks to reassuring Europe that the United States understands the pressure it is under from the flood of more than a million refugees fleeing Syria's separate civil war and conflicts across the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. Some European leaders have said that the administration fails to grasp the seriousness of the fissures that the influx have opened in postwar European unity.

"I want to make it clear to all of you," Kerry said, "The United States isn't sitting across the pond, saying this is your problem, not ours. . . . The United States understands the near-existential nature of this threat to the politics and fabric of life in Europe." That is why, he said, the administration promoted and would join a new NATO initiative to send warships to the eastern Mediterranean to "close off a key access route" for migrants traveling by sea from Turkey to Greece to reach the heart of Europe.