Kerry says ISIL is worldwide threat as Maliki rejects calls to form 'salvation' government

The Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) is a terrorist organization that threatens not only Iraq but every country in the region opposed to it as well as Europe and the United States, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday.

“Just a few months ago right here in Brussels, a man who had recently returned from fighting in Syria shot three people at a local museum,” said Kerry who was in Brussels to attend a NATO meeting set to be dominated by the Iraq crisis. 

“None of us need to be reminded that a faraway threat can have tragic consequences at home in the most unexpected way at the most unexpected moment."

Reporting on his recent visit to Iraq, Kerry said that defeating the militants would require unity and an inclusive government in Iraq, he added. “And in every meeting with leaders of each of Iraq’s main communities I stressed the importance, the urgency of them coming together to do just that.”

On Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he rejected calls to form a "national salvation government" to counter the expanding militant offensive.

In his weekly televised address, Maliki encouraged "all political forces to reconcile" but said that forming an emergency administration to include all religious and ethnic groups would go against April's parliamentary election results and be a "coup against the constitution and an attempt to end the democratic experience."

From Brussels, Kerry said that he had not discussed a so-called salvation government with Maliki. “In fact, there was no discussion that I had with any of the leaders there regarding a so-called salvation government," Kerry said.

Denying that the U.S. wanted to meddle in Iraq’s democratic process, he added: “It’s up to Iraqis to make those decisions. We have stated clearly that we have an interest in a government that can unite Iraqis that, like Grand Ayatollah Sistani said, will not repeat the mistakes of the past and go backwards, but can actually bring people together”.

At least nine people were killed in Iraq on Wednesday and dozens injured in bomb blasts and attacks across several cities including a suicide bombing in front of the Kurdistan Democratic Party offices in Kirkuk, according to security sources.

On Friday, Kerry will travel to Saudi Arabia to meet King Abdullah and “discuss regional issues, including the situation in Iraq and how we can counter the shared threat that is posed by ISIL, as well to discuss our support for the moderate opposition in Syria.”

ISIL militants, backed by tribal fighters, seized Iraq's second-largest city Mosul on 10 June and have captured a number of other towns in the north and west.