(VOVworld) - US Secretary of State John Kerry said on July 24 that he planned to discuss combating Islamic State militants in Syria and what role Iran could play when he meets with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Qatar in coming weeks. John Kerry expressed his hope to continue talks with his counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the issue of Syria, and want to bring Saudi Arabia and Turkey in. Kerry plans to travel to Doha in the next couple of weeks to meet with the Gulf Cooperation Council, which is made up of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar.

In an effort to fight against IS, Turkey and the US have reached an agreement to establish a no-fly zone in Syria. Turkey agreed to allow the US to use air bases there to launch strikes against IS forces in neighboring Syria, a major shift long sought by Washington and sealed hours before a deadly clash between Turkish forces and militants across the border. Incirlik is a US base about 60 miles from the Syrian border, giving US jets and unmanned drones vastly improved logistics for daily attacks on the radical group compared with other sites across the region now in use. Earlier, F-16 jets took off from Diyarbakir air base in southeast Turkey early Friday and used smart bombs to hit three IS targets.
The Syrian foreign minister has called on the countries in the Middle East to make efforts to establish a regional alliance to counter the rising threat of terrorist groups like IS in the region. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said that an alliance against IS led by the US has failed, and suggested that Iran should play the key role in the alliance against IS.