More nations willing to fight Islamic State than took on Iraq in 2003

France is ready to wage airstrikes against Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria. Saudi Arabia will open its bases to train Syrian opposition fighters. Most Middle East and Persian Gulf states have pledged to support a common stand against terrorism and America’s European allies vow not to stand idly by while Islamic State militants wreak deadly havoc in their newly seized “caliphate.”

The coalition shaping up to answer President Obama’s call for international action to destroy the extremist group Islamic State appears to be broader and more committed than the one Washington was able to muster for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

But with the more diverse international force will come the complications of an operation riven by the deepening schism between Shiite and Sunni Muslims that is racking the Middle East. And the attempt to unite hostile forces with a shared aim of defeating the Sunni-led radical Al Qaeda splinter group is replete with internal conflicts among strange bedfellows with competing agendas.

The fundamental conflict within Islam, as represented by the respective powerhouses of Iran and Saudi Arabia, virtually precludes open collaboration among regional leaders reluctant to be seen as backing a mission supported by the opposite side.

Administration officials insist that cooperation with Iran is out of the question. Iraqis, Sunni Arab countries, Turkey, as well as Israel, would all be deeply alarmed by any hint that Washington and Tehran are working together. So while the United States is keeping Iran informed of its plans in Iraq, officials on both sides insist there will be no partnership.

Dalia Dassa Kaye, a Middle East specialist at Rand Corp., said many Sunni Arab leaders will be skittish because they “don’t want to be seen supporting a Shiite-led effort,” and also will be uneasy to the extent the coalition is seen as “made in America.”

“It would feed into the ISIS narrative,” she said of the militants formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Mistrust and fear of public backlash are mutual feelings in Iran.

“Iran does not want to play up the U.S. role against [Islamic State] as serious and decisive,” said Nader Karimi Juni, a political analyst in Tehran.

The response to Obama’s call for a broad international campaign nonetheless has been heartening for the U.S. administration, as Secretary of State John F. Kerry’s Middle East recruitment effort aims to sign up as many as 100 countries.

That ambitious goal may be achievable as there is wide acknowledgment in Europe and the Middle East that Islamic State is a threat to targets far outside its claimed caliphate spanning about a third of Syrian and Iraqi territories. On the other hand, there is war weariness on the U.S. side after more than a decade of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and America’s NATO allies face other security challenges, foremost of them Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

In the Sunni strongholds of the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia, leaders are reluctant to be seen as lining up with the United States and Shiite factions in Iraq and Syria in a military campaign against Muslims, no matter how dangerous and extreme.

The coalition is also attracting participants with starkly contrasting objectives in defeating Islamic State, which is both an outgrowth of the Shiite-Sunni schism and a driving force in the deepening sectarian animosity.

Egypt, with the strong support of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, has embarked on a crackdown against the region’s oldest Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, while Turkey and Qatar, to the fury of Cairo, continue to support the Brotherhood and other militant groups such as Hamas, fresh from its confrontation with Israel in the Gaza Strip.

During his meetings Thursday with Middle East diplomats in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, Kerry sought assurances from Qatar and United Arab Emirates officials that they would make greater efforts to stem funding from wealthy radicals to the extremists building their caliphate. He was also expected Friday to press Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stop the flow of foreign fighters in and out of Syria to which Ankara has turned a blind eye in its desire to see the militants defeat Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Western-backed Syrian National Coalition responded to Obama’s call for a unified fight against Islamic State with vows of being a “ready and willing” partner. But the moderate, predominantly Sunni fighters insist the campaign needs also to target Assad, whom they have been trying to overthrow in a more than 3-year-old rebellion.

Iraq’s Kurds, another U.S. ally who can be vital in coordinating air assaults, also hope to gain control of more of the country’s oil assets once Islamic State is defeated or driven out, in particular the Iraqi oil industry hub of Kirkuk on Kurdistan’s southern edge.

Other countries in the region that Washington has counted on for support in previous campaigns appear to be leaning against joining the coalition.

Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said last week that his nation wouldn’t take part in somebody else’s war, and its lawmakers have expressed opposition to the kingdom joining the effort, even though Jordan relies on the United States for aid and security.

Still, the force being amassed to confront Islamic State is bound to be broader than the “coalition of the willing” that joined the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, when only Britain, Australia and Poland sent troops for the initial attack.

The George W. Bush administration later claimed a 46-nation alliance to topple Saddam Hussein, but some states’ deployments were minuscule, such as the two soldiers sent by Iceland and 24 by Moldova. Other nations listed as coalition members — Marshall Islands, Palau, Micronesia and Soloman Islands — did not even have standing armies from which to enlist forces for Iraq.

Williams reported from Los Angeles, Richter from Washington and King from Cairo. Times staff writer Patrick J. McDonnell in Beirut and special correspondent Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran also contributed to this report.