Israel offers to help Arab nations over Iraq crisis

Israel offered Thursday to help moderate Arab nations threatened by a lightning offensive by Islamic militants in Iraq, as the country's top diplomat met with US Secretary of State John Kerry.
      
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Kerry at a meeting in Paris that "the extremists currently operating in Iraq will try to challenge the stability in the entire Gulf region, first of all in Kuwait," a statement from his office said.
      
"Israel could provide effective and reliable assistance to moderate Arab states who are dealing with extremists," it added, without going into specific details.
      
Just a few days after visiting Iraq, Kerry said it was "important that countries in the region stand together against the threat," according to a senior US official.
      
Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) have captured a swathe of territory in northern Iraq in a lightning assault which is threatening to tear the country apart.
      
Kerry was holding a series of meetings with Middle East allies in Paris to discuss the crisis in Iraq after visiting both Baghdad and Arbil to press Iraqi leaders to unify against the dangers posed by ISIL.
      
The Sunni militants have overrun vast swathes of five provinces north and west of Baghdad, leaving more than 1,000 people dead and displacing hundreds of thousands.
      
The conflict also appears to be broadening with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki confirming Syria's air force struck Sunni militants on the Syrian side of the Iraq-Syria border this week.
      
The Iraqi leader said that while Baghdad did not request the strikes, he "welcomed" any moves against the...