Arab League endorses international action against Islamic State

Supporting the international action against radical Islamic State, the Arab League has vowed to take all necessary measures to confront the "corrupt, immoral" militants who are now controlling large parts of northern Iraq and Syria, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Sounding a clear warning, the secretary-general of the League, Nabil al-Araby, warned the rise of Islamic State threatened the "very existence" of other states, and slammed members for not confronting the issue earlier.

A UN Security Council resolution which was passed last month called on member states to "act to suppress the flow of foreign fighters, financing and other support to Islamist extremist groups in Iraq and Syria." The resolution too was also endorsed at the meeting yesterday.

The Arab League support comes as US president Barack Obama said that the US was planning to go on the offensive to halt the advancing Sunni insurgents.

In an interview on NBC yesterday, Obama said, "There's going to be a military element to it … over the course of months, we are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum of ISIL.

"We are going to systematically degrade their capabilities. We're going to shrink the territory that they control. And ultimately we're going to defeat them."

Several foreign ministers spoke about the  grave challenge the militants posed in Iraq as also the violence that had engulfed Libya and other regions, The Irish Times reported.

According to al-Arabi, IS successes in Iraq challenged not merely the authority of the state but ''its very existence and the existence of other states.'' He called for a decisive resolution to confront terrorism militarily, politically, economically and culturally.

According to Arabi, military action could take place under the umbrella of an Arab League joint defence pact.

It, however remained unclear whether the Arab commitment to take all necessary action against Islamic State and other militant groups would include direct military involvement in Iraq or Syria.

President Barack Obama declared last week that the US was ready to ''take out'' leaders of IS, adding that Nato allies were prepared to join military action against a movement that he described as a major threat to the west.

US warplanes conducted strikes against Islamic State militants threatening western Iraq's Haditha Dam early yesterday, in a widening of the campaign against the fighters.

Meanwhile, secretary of state John Kerry would travel to Saudi Arabia and Jordan in the coming week for talks with Gulf leaders to determine whether they were prepared to back up their anti-jihadist rhetoric with action.