David Jackson

USA TODAY

President Obama's ambassador to the United Nations said Sunday the United States will have allies when and if it decides to conduct airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria.

"I will make you a prediction ... which is that we will not do the airstrikes alone, if the president decides to do the airstrikes," ambassador Samantha Power said on ABC's This Week.

Obama has authorized potential airstrikes in Syria against the Islamic State, which controls land in that country and neighboring Iraq, and threatens the United States and allies. The U.S. began strikes in Iraq last month against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL.

Power, who echoed the pledge to recruit allies during a string of Sunday interviews, told CBS' Face The Nation: "The President has said we're not going to allow ISIL to have safe haven in Syria, but no decisions have been made in terms of how we're going to proceed in that."

Recruiting a global coalition for his overall counter-terrorism campaign against the Islamic State is one of Obama's objectives as he attends United Nations meetings this week.

The U.S. plan includes training moderates in Syria who can fight the Islamic State on the ground -- rebels also opposed to the government of Bashar Assad, whose removal is supported by the Obama administration.

On NBC's Meet The Press, Power said that "the training also will service these troops in the same struggle that they've been in since the beginning of this conflict against the Assad regime."

It is not known when — or if — the U.S. might launch strikes in Syria against the Islamic State. The proposal has met opposition from the Syrian government and others.

While the U.S. is willing to conduct airstrikes, Obama has repeatedly said the U.S. is relying on Iraqis and Syrians to carry the fight against the IS on the ground.

Syrian Opposition Coalition president Hadi al-Bahra, who will address the United Nations General Assembly this week in New York, also appeared on ABC Sunday to say his organization is fighting Assad in Damascus and the Islamic State in Aleppo, and needs western help to do both.

"This danger now is not a Syrian issue," Bahra said. "It is proved now that it is not a regional issue. It is also expanding now to be threat in Europe and even to the U.S."

Congressional lawmakers, wary of another American military commitment in the Middle East, said allies are crucial to Obama's overall strategy to roll back the Islamic State.

"We're going to have to go back to them time and time again, pressuring them to do more," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., speaking on Fox News Sunday.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., also appearing on Fox, said the United States should not be over-reliant on allies when it comes to the need to defeat the Islamic State. Attacking them in Syria is "in our national interest," King sad.

"Now if we can get allies, if we can get a coalition together, that's fine, and we should work on it," King said. "But we can't be beholden to a coalition because we're not doing this out of humanitarian purposes."