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Kerry arrives in Saudi Arabia for talks on anti-Islamic State coalition

The Columbian
Published: September 10, 2014, 5:00pm

CAIRO – Secretary of State John F. Kerry arrived Thursday in Saudi Arabia to press regional officials to support the newly expanded U.S.-led campaign against the militants of the Islamic State.

The consultations come a day after President Barack Obama outlined a strategy to reverse the stunning territorial gains made over the summer by the Sunni Muslim extremist group, which now controls large swaths of Syria and Iraq.

Obama said an aerial offensive would target Islamic State fighters “wherever they exist,” signaling a widening of the campaign of U.S. airstrikes launched against the group in Iraq last month.

Kerry’s talks with envoys from states including Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq were aimed at cementing what Obama said would be a “broad coalition” arrayed against the Islamic State.

After arriving in the Red Sea city of Jiddah, Kerry held initial consultations with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and was to meet later with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah.

In Egypt, the state Middle East News Agency reported that an American diplomatic delegation had arrived in Cairo on Thursday to lay the groundwork for an expected visit by Kerry.

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