International Conferences on Peace and Security in Iraq (2014)
Following US President Barack Obama's address on the subject, a series of international conferences took place in order to build a formal coalition to destroy the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which had taken over large portions of Syria and Iraq and had briefly invaded a small part of Lebanon.
International conferences
The first took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia[1] on 11 September 2014. The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar met with US Secretary of State John Kerry on what each of these countries would contribute to their common security in the matter. At the end of the conference, all the Ministers but Turkey's signed a declaration supporting the American military effort. Turkey, which at the time had 49 diplomats being held hostage by ISIS, and indeed had supported the organization through much of the previous two years, didn't want to endanger them or have its territory invaded.
Hezbollah, which has ministers in the Lebanese cabinet and is fighting on the side of the Assad regime, attacked its cabinet colleagues, and said that they consider Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil’s signing of the communique as non-binding until an official clarification is issued by the Beirut government.[2]
Kerry next went to Ankara, Turkey, and then Cairo, Egypt to shore up his support before going to Paris for the second conference on building an anti-ISIS coalition.
On 14 September, French President Francois Hollande and Iraqi President Fuad Masum hosted a meeting of high officials of more than 30 countries, including those who had been to the one in Jeddah, as well as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Iran, which had "boots on the ground" in Iraq, and Syria, which has lost much territory to ISIS, were not invited and did not attend.
