NEW YORK, September 11 (RIA Novosti) – US President Barack Obama"s strategy for defeating Islamic State (IS) militants removes responsibility from local leaders to solve their own problems, US ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone told reporters in a conference call organized by the Atlantic Council on Thursday.
"By stating that this is a counter-terrorism threat to the United States and a US problem, it falls into the US habit of making the issue about us, whereas it really is a problem about the region and the people in the region," Ricciardone said.
"The question is how we, on the outside, can best help the stakeholders in the strategic purposes that we share. It relieves the people who should be bearing more of this burden if the US has once again stepped in to take care of this dreadful problem for them," he added.
On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama announced plans to defeat the Islamic State militant group, previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Obama said that Washington will be extending its airstrikes from Iraq to Syria, as well as providing support, equipment and training to Kurdish and Iraqi forces army and Syria"s moderate opposition in order to respond to terrorists" threat.
IS has been fighting alongside the other rebel groups against the government forces in the Syrian civil war, before launching an offensive in Iraq in June 2014.
Later in June, the group announced the establishment of an Islamic caliphate on the territories that had fallen under its control, and claimed religious authority over all Muslims globally.
