US pursues own interests in ISIL fight: Senior cleric

A senior Muslim cleric has denounced Washington’s role in a campaign against the Takfiri ISIL militants in Iraq and Syria as ‘purely self-interested.’

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian-born cleric based in Qatar, said in a Saturday message posted on Twitter that he does not “at all accept that the one to fight” against the ISIL terror group “is America.”

He added that the US does not “act in the name of Islam but rather in its own interests, even if blood is shed.”
The comments come as the US President Barack Obama on Wednesday unveiled plans for an expansion of Washington’s campaign against the ISIL.

US Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to Saudi Arabia on Thursday for a high-level strategy session with representatives from 10 Arab nations on how to confront and ultimately destroy the ISIL.

Kerry arrived in Ankara on Friday to hold talks with Turkey’s leaders, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Foreign Minister Mevlut Chavushoglu over issues surrounding the ISIL threat. On Saturday, he visited Egypt to rally support for more military action against the ISIL terrorists.

The US claims many regional states and Western governments are ready to join the coalition against the ISIL.

However, Ankara said on Thursday that it would not allow a US-led military coalition to use its air bases in order to launch attacks on ISIL terrorists’ hideouts in neighboring Iraq and Syria.

On the same day, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his British counterpart, Philip Hammond, said during a meeting in Berlin that their respective countries would not take part in any US airstrikes against the ISIL in Syria.

The Takfiri terrorists currently control parts of eastern Syria and Iraq’s northern and western regions, where they have committed heinous crimes, but in recent weeks they have been targeted by US airstrikes.