File Photo: US Secretary of State John Kerry. (AP)
US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Arab foreign ministers in Saudi Arabia Wednesday as he bids for a broad coalition against the Islamic State, a senior Egyptian foreign ministry official said.
The talks in the Saudi port city of Jeddah, which will continue into Thursday, will be attended by ministers from Egypt, Jordan and the six Gulf Arab states as well as Iraq, the official told AFP.
The ministers "are going to meet Kerry on Wednesday and Thursday in Jeddah as part of efforts to tackle terrorism," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil will also take part in the talks, a government official in Beirut told AFP.
Kerry was headed to the region on Tuesday in a bid to build an enduring coalition against the jihadists, who have seized swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
The US top diplomat pledged to build "the broadest possible coalition of partners around the globe to confront, degrade and ultimately defeat (IS)."
"Almost every single country has a role to play in eliminating the (IS) threat and the evil that it represents," Kerry said.
© Thomson Reuters 2014