Following a diplomatic tour through the Middle East, Secretary of State John Kerry met with international leaders Monday in Paris as part of an outreach effort aimed at building an international coalition to fight the Islamic State, the terrorist group responsible for violence in Syria and Iraq. President Barack Obama has vehemently denied that the effort to "degrade" and "ultimately defeat" the group will involve any American ground troops, and says it will not devolve into another American war.

The West is feeling increasing pressure to address the threat posed by the group, following the release of a third beheading video of a Western hostage over the weekend. The execution of British aid worker David Haines took place about a month after the first such killing, that of American journalist James Foley, and about two weeks after the taped beheading of Steven Sotloff, also an American journalist.

Support from Middle Eastern allies is seen as a key to a successful campaign because it lends legitimacy to the Western effort. The Obama administration is also calling on neighboring Arab countries to assist by securing their borders to prevent the flow of foreign fighters into the war-torn region and to cut off financing to the terrorist organization by cracking down on black market oil sales.

The United States has conducted limited airstrikes in Iraq against the Islamic State, but has resisted dispatching ground troops.

“[T]here are troops on the ground that don’t belong to us. They’re called Syrian. The Syrian opposition is on the ground, and one of the regrettable things is it has been fighting [the Islamic State] by itself over the course of the last couple of years,” Kerry told CBS News' Bob Schieffer in an interview that aired Sunday. “And it’s one of the reasons that they’ve had a difficult battle. And now, with the air support and other effort from other countries, they will be augmented in their capacity.”

Obama has long vowed to get the United States out of the Middle East, winding down military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the growing threat of the Islamic State has forced the U.S. to step up engagement in Iraq and Syria while hoping to engender concrete commitments from regional partners.

A group of Arab nations, including Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia last week “agreed to do their share in the comprehensive fight against [the Islamic State].” Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, who contributed fighter jets to the 2011 U.S.-led efforts in Libya, were also a part of that coalition. A communiqué issued after a meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, said the nations will work toward the Obama administration goals, including deterring the flow of fighters and financing to the Islamic State, as well as assisting with reconstruction and humanitarian relief. They also pledged to take part in “the many aspects of a coordinated military campaign against [the Islamic State].”

Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Arab states on Thursday at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia.

The Associated Press

Frederick Kagan, director of the critical threats project at the American Enterprise Institute, says the United States may have a difficult time convincing other nations to invest troops.

“It’s going to be much harder to persuade regional countries to send significant numbers of ground forces to very, very compromised, dangerous situations while we refuse to provide any on the ground support,” Kagan said.

Turkey, the only NATO country in the region, shares borders with both Syria and Iraq, but has resisted getting involved because the Islamic State reportedly holds 49 Turks hostage. The captives were kidnapped in a June attack on the Turkish consulate in Mosul, Iraq.

Notably absent from the meeting Paris are officials from Syria and Iran. The United States opposed inviting Iran to the conference despite French desires to do so, because of the Middle Eastern country’s military role in the Syrian civil war.

State department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the United States is not coordinating militarily with Iran, but the two countries may discuss cooperation against the Islamic State when they meet at next week’s United Nations General Assembly in New York.

"I am not going to outline every diplomatic discussion. But we are not and will not coordinate militarily," Psaki said in a statement.

Jordan Perry, the principal Middle East and North Africa analyst at Maplecroft, says Iranian and Syrian absences from Paris show the United States doesn’t want to be seen openly cooperating with those countries.

“This is not least because of the Iranian-backed Syrian regime’s record of indiscriminate bombings and other alleged war crimes, as well as Washington’s support for so-called moderate opposition forces in Syria,” he says.

Yet, Perry says, it is likely the United States is having limited dialogue with the Iranians and Syrians.