OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper will meet with the head of NATO Monday to discuss terror threats facing the military alliance as the government prepares this week to launch a longer military mission against Islamic State extremists.

Harper will meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as the new head of the alliance makes his first visit to Ottawa and topping their agenda is the emerging threat posed by the Islamic State extremists, also known as ISIS and ISIL.

“(Harper) and NATO secretary general are expected to raise the growing phenomena of foreign fighters, the direct threat ISIL poses to Canada and alliance member security, and the imperative that allied nations must confront and degrade this threat head-on,” said a senior source familiar with the meeting.

The prime minister will also “make clear Canada’s continued commitment to degrading the threat ISIL poses to Canadians by extending and expanding the mission against these terrorists,” the source said.

“Canada will not sit on the sidelines against this clear and present threat to our own security. We will confront it to protect our citizens and we will continue to work with the coalition and allies to undermine ISIL’s ability to launch terrorist operations against our countries,” the source said.

Harper said last week that Canada would extend the ongoing six-month mission in Iraq, which involves a small team of soldiers training local fighters, as well as CF-18s fighter jets on a bombing campaign against extremist targets in Iraq.

The prime minister is expected to lay out details of the new mission in a speech to Parliament sometime this week. He will likely propose a longer mission, perhaps up to a year, and could also propose a new mandate for CF-18s to strike at targets in Syria. The government had ruled out that option for the current mission unless Syria expressly gave its approval.

The New Democrats and Liberals opposed the current mission when it was first proposed last October. This week, Harper will ask the opposition parties to back the renewed mission.

“He will ask them to support our government’s operation to degrade and destabilize this gang of thugs, and in doing so, strip ISIL of its power to threaten the security of the region or to launch terrorist operations in Canada,” Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson said in a speech last week.

Yet NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair declared Sunday that his party will oppose the extension and vowed even to bring troops home this fall should his party win the federal election set for Oct. 19.

“We don’t think that this is a war we should be involved in,” Mulcair said during an appearance on CTV’s Question Period.

“This is not a NATO mission, it’s not a UN mission, and we think it’s wrong for Canada to be involved,” Mulcair said.

Liberal MP Joyce Murray said her party has not decided whether to support the new mission. “We’ll wait until we see the details,” she said on Question Period.

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