“What is the threat” the French leader said as he opened the one-day meeting of officials from some 30 states in Paris.
“It is global so the response must be global … Iraq’s fight against the terrorists is also our fight. We must commit ourselves together – that is the purpose of this conference,” said Hollande, who last week travelled to Baghdad to meet members of Iraq’s new government.
Foreign ministers from the main European states, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, Iraq’s neighbours and Gulf Arab states Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, gathered to discuss political, security and humanitarian aspects of tackling ISIS.
The Iranian regime was not invited to the conference. “We wanted a consensus among countries over Iran’s attendance, but in the end it was more important to have certain Arab states than Iran,” a French diplomat said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday it would be inappropriate for the Iranian regime to attend the meeting in Paris on how to defeat the ISIS group, The Associated Press reported.