Nato to fight terrorism

– Nato will join the USled coalition fighting Islamic State (IS) jihadis, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday ahead of a summit with President Donald Trump.

“This will send a strong political message of Nato’s commitment to the fight against terrorism,” Stoltenberg said.

He stressed this did not involve Nato taking on a combat role against IS and other Islamist terror groups in Syria and Iraq.

Trump came to Brussels to push Nato allies to take on a more active role, having dubbed the Cold War-era alliance “obsolete” for failing to focus on the threat from Islamist terrorism.

Trump said Monday’s deadly bomb attack in Manchester only showed how dangerous the threat was.

All 28 allies have individually joined the anti-IS coalition of more than 60 countries, but Nato as an institution has not followed suit until now despite intense pressure from Washington.

Diplomatic sources say some member states such as France, Germany and Italy had opposed such a move for fear the alliance would be dragged into a ground war and risk relations with Arab powers. – AFP