Anti-ISIS coalition ministers say Iraq must do more to enlist Sunnis

The meeting in Paris Tuesday of some 20 ministers from Western and Middle Easter coalition countries including Saudi Arabia and Turkey will focus on helping Iraq reverse its biggest military defeat in nearly a year – the fall of Ramadi, just 90 km west of Baghdad. "Ramadi was a big blow," said a French diplomatic source. "We're not going to change the fundamentals of our strategy – air strikes and support for Iraqi forces – but it's crucial that everybody in Iraq is part of the fight against Islamic State." French Foreign Minister Larent Fabius pressed Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi to do more to persuade Sunni Arab tribes to fight Islamic State. Fabius met with a smaller group of ministers on Syria. Following ISIS’s seizure of Palmyra, Bashar Assad appears to be losing ground, he said, and urged the re-launch of stalled peace talks. “There is no military solution without a political solution,” said the French minister. US Secretary of State John Kerry will attend the meeting remotely from hospital in Boston after breaking his leg.