WASHINGTON: US Vice President Joe Biden has proposed creating three semi-independent regions within Iraq to counter the rapidly growing militant threat.

And at a Friday afternoon news briefing, a senior US official indicated launching airstrikes at targets inside Syria to root out militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al Sham (ISIS).

But in an opinion piece in The Washington Post published on Saturday, Mr Biden said that military strikes alone could not defeat the militants and urged Iraq to pursue a federal system that would decentralize power away from Baghdad.

Mr Biden noted that Iraq was making progress in forming a new government. But he said sectarian divisions were fueling extremist movements like the ISIS.

Mr Biden wrote that federalism was emerging as a key approach to Iraq’s future. He’s alluding to a plan he proposed in 2006 that would see Iraq divided into three semi-independent regions for Shias, Sunnis and Kurds.

Mr Biden said such a plan would keep Iraq united, protect local populations and ensure oil revenues were shared fairly, while squeezing ISIS.

He said the US would offer assistance to implement this plan. US Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rho­d­es, however, focused on military options for defeating ISIS militants who beheaded journalist, James Foley, last week. “We’re actively considering what’s going to be necessary to deal with that threat, and we’re not going to be restricted by borders,” said Mr Rhodes warned the terrorists that the US was not going to spare those who targeted Americans. “We’ve made very clear time and again that if you come after Americans, we’re going to come after you wherever you are,” he said.

Earlier this month, the United States began a targeted campaign against ISIS in Iraq, launching about 100 strikes in two weeks. More than half of those strikes were launched to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces on the ground, the US Central Command said.

The US air support enabled Iraqi and Kurdish troops to push back the militants who had seized several key towns and strategic sites, including the Mosul dam, from them.

US intelligence sources told journalists in Washington that since the 2011 uprising against the Assad regime, Syria has become a major hub of the IS militants. They said the self-appointed IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may also have fled to Syria.

Mr Biden also backed the military strikes, saying, “There is no negotiating with ISIS.” But he also argued that ISIS militants were exploiting sectarian divisions and political mistrust inside Iraq to expand their influence. Such differences had also “sapped the strength of Iraqi forces,” he wrote.

Mr Biden said that the US was also “encouraging Iraq’s neighbours to refrain from fueling sectarian divisions, which only plays into ISIS’s hands.”

The vice president argued that his proposal for creating a “functioning federalism” under the Iraqi constitution would “ensure equitable revenue-sharing for all provinces and establish locally rooted security structures.”

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2014