Obama to Meet With Allies to Discuss Strategy Against Islamic State

President Obama will meet Tuesday, military chiefs from more than 20 countries participating in the fight against the Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

According to administration officials, the meeting will focus on military strategy and methods to strengthen the operations against the militants.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel opined that the meeting will be play a significant role in increasing the coordination among the various nations in the fight against the militants.

"They will be working through those specific areas and defining specific contributions that these nations will make," Hagel told reporters at the end of a meeting with defense ministers of the Americas in Peru, reports the Associated Press.

Military chiefs from Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are expected to attend the meeting, which will be held at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.

However, the meeting would not be taking any major policy decisions, said Colonel Ed Thomas, spokesman of General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, reports Reuters.

The participation of Turkey in the meeting is important for the U.S. as it has been urging the government in Ankara to play a larger role in the fight against the Islamic State.

U.S. officials said Monday that Turkey had agreed to let the U.S. and allied forces use its bases for air strikes against the militants.  But sources at the Turkish Prime Minister's office denied it and said that discussions were continuing on the subject.

Meanwhile, Republican Senator John McCain said that the Islamic State was winning in Iraq and Syria and urged the United States to deploy ground troops to avoid defeat.

McCain's call for a fundamental re-evaluation of U.S. strategy comes in the wake of Islamic State's advances in Kobani in Syria and Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

 "They're winning, and we're not," McCain said. "The Iraqis are not winning. The Peshmerga, the Kurds are not winning," he said, reports The Guardian.