By Hagar al-Dosoki
CAIRO
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Saturday with Arab League Secretary-General Nabil al-Arabi for talks on a flurry of issues, including terror combat.
"The talks focused on three main issues; fighting terrorism, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Libyan crisis," al-Arabi told reporters.
Kerry arrived in Cairo earlier Saturday from Turkey for talks with the Arab League chief and senior Egyptian officials, including President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.
An Arab League official told Anadolu Agency earlier that Kerry and al-Arabi had discussed efforts aimed at fighting terrorism as well as regional developments, especially the situation in Syria, Libya and Iraq.
Kerry's visit is part of U.S. efforts aimed at forming a broad coalition against the Islamic State militant group, which is now controlling vast chunks of land in both Iraq and Syria.
The U.S. has led efforts to form a regional and international coalition to fight the threat to the Middle East posed by the group.
Since early last month, the U.S. has carried out a total of 143 airstrikes across Iraq against sites said to be held by the Islamic State.
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Iraqi government troops – backed by U.S. air support – are said to have recently made slow but steady progress in areas under the group's control.
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