BAGHDAD – Washington readied a new diplomatic push to unite Iraq’s fractious leaders Saturday and repel an offensive that has put Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki under growing pressure domestically and overseas.



US President Barack Obama has offered hundreds of military advisers but his refusal so far to approve air strikes against militants, led by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, has prompted Baghdad’s powerful Shiite neighbor Iran to charge that Washington lacked the “will” to fight terror.



The swift militant onslaught, which has been carried out by ISIL as well as a litany of other groups including loyalists of now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein, has overrun swathes of territory north of Baghdad, displacing hundreds of thousands and threatening Iraq’s very existence.



International leaders and Iraq’s Shiite religious elite have called on the country to unite to face off the insurgent threat, with Secretary of State John Kerry this weekend heading to the Middle East and Europe in a push to stabilize the country.



While Kerry is also expected to travel to Iraq soon — on what would be his second visit since taking over as the top US diplomat in early 2013 — there is no clear timetable for when the trip will happen.



“We gave Iraq the chance to have an inclusive democracy. To work across sectarian lines, to provide a better future for their children,” Obama told CNN on Friday.



“Unfortunately what we’ve seen is a breakdown of trust.”



He added: “There’s no amount of American fire power that’s going to be able to hold the country together. And I made that very clear to Mr. Maliki and all of the other leadership inside of Iraq.”



Obama, who based his political career on ending the costly eight-year US intervention in Iraq, has insisted Washington is not slipping back into the morass.



But he has offered as many as 300 military advisers and left open the possibility of “targeted and precise military action.”

Washington already has an aircraft carrier in the Gulf and is flying manned and unmanned surveillance flights over Iraq, while senior US officials say special forces being sent to advise Iraq could call in air strikes if necessary.



UN chief Ban Ki-moon also warned military strikes against the rebels could prove counterproductive without any movement toward inclusive government.



The US’s calls for broader leadership came as Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, a revered cleric among Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority, called on people to band together against the insurgents before it was too late. – AFP