President Obama will deliver an address to the nation on his plans to confront the terrorist threat from the jihadist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET, the White House said Tuesday.
The president will deliver the speech from the State Floor of the White House and will "discuss with the American people the threat posed by ISIL and to lay out the United States' strategy for degrading and ultimately destroying the terrorist group," Josh Earnest, White House press secretary, said.
In recent months, the Islamic militant group has gained worldwide attention by seizing large parts of Iraq and Syria and beheading two American journalists.
While the White House offered little detail about what new strategy Obama might share in tomorrow's speech, it cannot be certain that the president will even have new information on ISIS beyond what he has offered in several recent interviews, CBS News reported.
"I wouldn't rule out that there might be something new in the speech but the principal goal here is to make sure people understand what the clear stake is here for the American people and our nation," Earnest told reporters Monday.
Speaking in a separate press conference, Secretary of State John Kerry said the speech would offer more detail about the "coordinated global strategy against ISIL."
"As we build this coalition I want to underscore that almost every single country on earth has a role to play in eliminating the ISIL threat and the evil that it represents," said Kerry, who will be traveling to the Middle East Tuesday to work on building an international coalition.
Specifically, the prime address will discuss "the progress we've made" against insurgents, including ongoing airstrikes in Iraq and formation of a new national government in Baghdad, Earnest said.
"The speech will focus on the 'next phase,' Earnest said, including help to the Iraq military and to moderate forces in Syria so that they can 'take the fight' to the insurgents," according to USA Today. "The spokesman said the president will also discuss help from other countries in the battle against the Islamic State."
As for what the U.S. will do to achieve those goals, Earnest said that previous U.S. counterterrorism operations "are a relevant reference point" for how the president might approach ISIS now, according to CBS News.
"We've worked very effectively to defeat terrorists who pose a threat to the United States," Earnest said. "In terms of evaluating what the president's chief concern is and what our solution looks like, it is similar to some of the other counterterrorism missions that the president has ordered and have been successfully executed by the United States military and with the support and in conjunction with our allies around the world."
Over the weekend, Obama said that he intends to use the speech as a means for "preparing the country to make sure that we deal with a threat from ISIL."
"This is not going to be an announcement about U.S. ground troops," Obama said in an interview with NBC News's Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press". "This is not the equivalent of the Iraq War. What this is similar to the kinds of counterterrorism campaigns that we've been engaging in consistently over the last five, six, seven years. And the good news is that because of American leadership, we have I believe, a broad-based coalition internationally and regionally to be able to deal with the problem."
"I just want the American people to understand the nature of the threat and how we're going to deal with it and to have confidence that we'll be able to deal with it," the president said Sunday.
"Over the course of months, we are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum of [ISIS]," the president added. "We are going to systematically degrade their capabilities. We're going to shrink the territory that they control. And ultimately we're going to defeat them."
In Wednesday's speech, the president may also brace Americans for the possibility that the battle could take years, including discussing the long-term potential for air strikes in Syria.
Although the insurgent group has a "virtual safe haven" in Syria, Earnest said that the administration does not plan to send American troops there, or to act without support from allies. The claim has been supported by Obama, who outright rejected sending U.S. combat troops on the ground in Syria, saying that would be a "profound mistake."
"What the president has said and he said this again in the interview that he conducted over the weekend is his willingness to go wherever is necessary to strike those who are threatening Americans and that has been true in a range of other circumstances," Earnest said.
Meanwhile, Wednesday night is also the eve of the 13th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
