On the heels of a third video released by ISIS depicting the beheading of a prisoner, 26 nations and representatives from the United Nations, European Union, and Arab League have assembled in Paris to formalize a battle strategy against the militants that have seized much of northern and western Iraq. "We must not allow them to have sanctuaries," Iraqi President Fuad Masum told the conference. "We must pursue them wherever they are."

French President Francois Hollande has called for a full-on global response to the Sunni militants, saying, "It is global so the response must be global...Iraq's fight against the terrorists is also our fight." The Wall Street Journal reports that French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has already requested permission from Iraq to fly reconnaissance missions over the country to identify potential ISIS targets.

Masum and Iraq's prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, have both called for military action, namely from the U.S., on the Syrian side of the Iraq-Syria border—President Obama said last week that airstrikes on the region are likely in the America's campaign to "degrade and ultimately destroy" ISIS. Other countries, however, have yet to signal a willingness to launch attacks in Syria.

Most notably absent from the conference were delegates from Iran and Syria. From the Associated Press:

Muslim-majority countries are considered vital to any operation to prevent the militants from gaining more territory in Iraq and Syria. Western officials have made clear they consider Syrian President Bashar Assad part of the problem, and U.S. officials opposed France's attempt to invite Iran, a Shiite nation, to the conference in Paris.

Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaking on Iranian state television, said his government privately refused American requests for cooperation against the Islamic State group, warning that another U.S. incursion would result "in the same problems they faced in Iraq in the past 10 years."

[Image via AP]