WASHINGTON, August 9 (RIA Novosti) – US President Barack Obama did not name an exact timeframe for the US military involvement in Iraq and urged the country’s groups to form a legitimate and unified government.
"I don't think we are going to solve this problem in weeks. I think this is going to take some time," Obama stressed speaking in a nationally televised news conference from the South Lawn of the White House.
According to Obama, all Iraqi communities, including Sunnis and Shiites, should unite against the threats coming from extremists, targeted by the United States.
President Obama stressed that the United States is not planning to evacuate its diplomatic mission from Erbil.
Defense of the US consulate in Erbil, the capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan, is one of the aims of targeted US airstrikes against Islamic militants in Iraq, carried out by the country for the past two days. The strikes also aim to defend the Kurdish minority community of Yezidis and Christians in northern Iraq, which as Obama earlier stated, face genocide from the hands of IS forces.
In early June, following an offensive launched by the Sunni group Islamic State (IS), Iraq faced a security threat. IS rebels previously fighting in Syria have taken over large parts of the country, with the goal of seizing Baghdad. Later, they were joined by Iraqi Sunnis, soldiers from Saddam Hussein's army and minor terrorist groups. In late June, the Islamic State announced the establishment of a caliphate on the territories it had captured in Iraq and Syria.
