World leaders vow to do 'whatever necessary' to defeat Isis jihadis --- US-led efforts to construct an international coalition to destroy Islamic State (Isis) are to intensify after leaders from 24 countries pledged at a crisis meeting in Paris on Monday to use "whatever means necessary" to defeat what they called a "global threat". -- The talks were held as France began reconnaissance flights over Iraq after announcing it was ready to join US air strikes there. Philip Hammond, Britain's foreign secretary, said the UK would play a leading role in the coalition, suggesting military efforts beyond its current involvement in arming the Kurds and flying reconnaissance missions. The US says nearly 40 countries have already offered to help fight the transnational jihadi movement. -- Iraq's new government won broad support. However, on a day of strong statements there was no public mention of attacking Isis on Syrian soil, where armed action is far more problematic legally and politically than in Iraq because it would not have the consent of President Bashar al-Assad – or the legitimacy of a UN resolution that Russia would insist on. However, Hammond said the UK was not ruling out the option of strikes against Isis in Syria. -- Speaking after the conference, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, ruled out coordination with Iran in any US-led campaign. Earlier, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claimed that Tehran had privately refused US requests for cooperation. "I saw no point in cooperating with a country whose hands are dirty and intentions murky," Khamenei said. -- Kerry's spokesperson said there might be a future opportunity to talk to Iran – likely to be in the margin of talks at the UN later this month. French officials said Arab countries, probably led by Saudi Arabia, had blocked Tehran's presence. --- Amid continuing uncertainty about who will do what in the US-led coalition, urgent appeals were the order of the day. The French president, François Hollande asked western and Arab countries to engage "clearly, loyally and strongly on the side of the Iraqi authorities". There was "no time to lose" in dealing with the Isis threat. "Iraq's fight against ter-rorism is also ours," he said. The French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said Isis was neither "a state or representative of Islam", neither were its "throat-cutters". --- Last week, at talks in Jeddah, the US won the backing for a "coordinated military campaign" from 10 Arab countries – Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and six Gulf states including Saudi Arabia and Qatar. On Sunday, amid outrage over the ritualised killing of Haines, western diplomats reported that several Arab states – likely to include Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – had privately offered to join the US in carrying out air strikes. -- Read More, Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/15/world-leaders-pledge-defeat-isis-paris-summit