WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — President Barack Obama’s administration is seeking to lay the groundwork for the Iraqi Security Forces recapture of the city of Mosul from the Daesh, but the operation’s success will depend on the Iraqi government and people, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Wednesday.
"The goal we laid out is to try and put in place the conditions by the end of the year where Mosul could be retaken, so that is the goal we are aiming for," Earnest stated.
The spokesman added that the work to recapture Mosul from the Daesh is being led by Iraqi Security Forces. Maintaining security in the country "is a problem that the Iraqi people are going to have to solve," he added, noting that previous US efforts to "impose a solution" on Iraq "didn’t work out very well."
Earlier on Wednesday, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper stated that the efforts to liberate Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, from the Daesh is unlikely to occur under the Obama administration, which leaves office at the beginning of 2017.
