UN to vote on resolution to weaken Islamic State

The UN Security Council is set to vote on Friday on a resolution aimed at weakening Islamic State militants by choking off funding and the flow of foreign fighters.

The measure, proposed by Britain, would be the council's toughest response yet to the group that captured significant swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq in recent months.

The UN vote comes as Britain, following on emergency meeting, became the third country to commit to arming Kurdish Peshmerga fighters on Friday, The Guardian reported. The US and France both pledged earlier this week to provide the Kurds with weaponry.

The European Union will also meet on Friday to vote on whether to arm the Kurdish fighters. A unanimous vote is required.

Votes around increased foreign intervention and assistance to battle the Islamic State-led offensive in Iraq follow Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's resignation late Thursday. 

Over the past week, Maliki faced increasing pressure from international powers, including the US and Iran, to step aside in order for a new inclusive government to be formed.

Some analysts have raised questions about how helpful European military support for the Kurds will be in the battle against IS.

"Clearly limited European military support to the Kurds will not fundamentally shift the dynamics of the wider battle against IS, whose primary target remains the Shia community and the march on Baghdad, not the Kurds and Erbil," wrote Julien Barnes-Dacey, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

"In the end, despite fears and pledges to the contrary, the provision of military support to the Kurds may be the beginning of a far deeper and longer military campaign," he added.

UN resolution vote at 1900 GMT

Diplomats told AFP that the UN text up for a vote on Friday had been agreed by all 15 members of the council after nearly a week of negotiations and that the resolution would come up for a vote at 1900 GMT Friday.

The final text, seen by AFP, demands that IS fighters in Iraq and Syria, rebels from the al-Nusra front in Syria and other al-Qaeda-linked groups "disarm and disband with immediate effect."

It "calls on all member states to take national measures to suppress the flow of foreign terrorist fighters" to the groups and threatens to slap sanctions on those involved in recruitment.

It also warns governments and entities that trade with the militants, who now control oilfields and other potentially cash-generating infrastructure, "could constitute financial support" that may lead to sanctions.

In the agreed text, the council accuses the militants of a series of atrocities and warns that such attacks may constitute a crime against humanity.

The text states that the council is acting under chapter VII of the UN charter, which means the measures could be enforced by military force or economic sanctions.

The council last week adopted a unanimous statement calling on governments to help Iraq cope with the humanitarian crisis.

It was the third condemnation of the IS offensive.

Sajad Jiyad, an Iraq analyst, said on Friday that the only way Iraq would be able to get rid of ISIS, in addition to working on political inclusiveness with the new government, is foreign intervention.

"We have to be quite honest about that," Jiyad told the BBC World Service. "Iraq does not want foreign boots on the ground, but what is required is the ability to strike at ISIS wherever they are. So one part of it is we are calling for extended air strikes and preferably something that is UN sanctioned, not just legal authorisation, but UN-based as in UN forces assisting with this military action."

Other analysts say the militant group cannot be defeated using air power.

"ISIS can only be defeated when you drive a wedge between it and local communities," said Fawaz Gerges, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics. 

Unlike al-Qaeda which has taken almost a decade to dismantle, said Gerges, Islamic State has embedded itself within disaffected local Sunni communities in Iraq and Syria, ties which will take years to break.

"It will take time because [IS] has inserted itself," he said. "We're talking about years."