Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday the international community would not sit and watch Islamic State grow and identified Iraq as a key partner in the fight against the group, according to The Associated Press.
"We all have an interest in supporting the new government of Iraq at this particular critical junction," Kerry told reporters, the AP reported. "The coalition that is at the heart of our global strategy I assure you will continue to grow and deepen in the days ahead..."
Kerry was in Baghdad to meet with Iraq's new leaders and pledge U.S. support for eliminating the extremist group and the threat it poses, according to the AP.
Kerry said President Barack Obama would later outline Wednesday in specific detail what steps the U.S. is prepared to take to defeat the Islamic State, which has overrun parts of northern Iraq and Syria, the AP reported.
Kerry landed in the Iraqi capital just two days after newly sworn Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi seated his top government ministers, a crucial step toward restoring stability in a nation where security has spiraled out of control since the beginning of the year, according to the AP.
At his news conference after the talks here, Kerry declared now that there is a new, inclusive government in Baghdad, "it's full speed ahead," according to the AP.
Kerry also said the U.S. is also pledging another $48 million Wednesday to U.N. agencies and other humanitarian aid organizations to help ease suffering of 1.8 million people who have been displaced by the Islamic State, the AP reported.
The trip marks the first high-level U.S. meeting with al-Abadi since he became prime minister, and it aimed to symbolize the Obama administration's support for Iraq nearly three years after U.S. troops left the war-torn country, but it also signaled to al-Abadi, a Shiite Muslim, that the U.S. was watching to make sure he gives Iraqi Sunnis more control over their local power structures and security forces, as promised, according to the AP.
