Iraq's president: We need international support but not ground intervention against ISIS

The Iraqi president Fuad Masum said that his country does not need ground intervention in Iraq to defeat ISIS, but what it needs is international support.

“If there is cooperation or coordination between Iraq and the US, along with neighboring countries, this organisation (ISIS) could be swiftly defeated,” Masum told CNN.

He called for international support to fight ISIS “terrorists”, lamenting the fact that Iraq is in a fragile and vulnerable situation. If ISIS achieves victory in Iraq, he said, it will expand to other countries too.

“We need several things: we need expertise, we need know-how, we need some types of weapons that can be only obtained through agreements. But individuals, or boots on the ground – maybe we don’t need that,” Masum told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

He added that he hopes the organisation will be wiped out gradually in Iraq and also Syria: “It is important to strike ISIS wherever it is, because if ISIS takes over Syria then the danger will remain. If we can follow ISIS into Syria, we can do that through cooperation with other powers in Syria until we wipe it out.”