Kerry defends commitment of countries fighting ISIS

Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday defended the role of members of the coalition to fight militants with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Kerry was asked on MSNBC about Turkey, a US ally and NATO member that has been reluctant to allow strikes based out of an air base there or to take other active roles against ISIS. Turkey has also been dealing with 49 of its citizens who were being held hostage by ISIS. The hostages were released Saturday.

Kerry emphasized that Turkey “is an ally” and pointed to his meeting with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan last week. “They have absolutely pledged to be effective” Kerry said, before later adding that the “the proof will be in the actions,” not words.

Kerry did not say what Turkey had pledged to do. 

For the more than 50 countries in the coalition to fight ISIS, the process of figuring out who is doing what is just beginning, Kerry said. Conversations about the coalition will take place at the U.N. General Assembly in New York this week.

“We’re beginning to put together the specific tasks that each nation will undertake,” Kerry said.

The hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” hosts pressed Kerry about charges that Qatar harbors people who fund ISIS. The secretary of State said the government of Qatar is not funding ISIS, but he didn’t delve into the country’s handling of individuals in its territory providing financing.

Kerry said that, across the globe, state funding of ISIS “has stopped,” and it is now only a question of individual financiers, as well as funds the group takes on its own, including from a bank it robbed, when it took over the Iraqi city of Mosul.

“They have access to funding that al Qaeda never had,” Kerry said.

He added that the group must be stopped.

“You cannot have a challenge to the norms of international behavior, the rule of law, to states, and leave it unchallenged,” Kerry said.