PARIS: Iraq and Syria risk further division if international efforts to tackle ISIS militants there are not stepped up quickly, France’sLaurent Fabius warned Tuesday. The foreign minister, speaking ahead of a June 2 meeting in Paris of nations fighting ISIS, also said Iraq’s government had not honored commitments to its partners to represent the interests of all sectors of its society.

He further said Syrian President Bashar Assad had lost control of his country and that a political solution between elements of his government and the opposition needed to be found quickly to “save Syria.”

“In Iraq, like Syria, international mobilization must be strengthened very quickly or else we are heading toward the division of one or the other country, if not both, with new massacres and disastrous consequences,” Fabius told lawmakers without elaborating on what reinforcements he wanted.

“It confirms what we have said all along. There is no military solution without a political solution. In September, we linked the coalition’s support to political commitments by the new Iraqi government, what we call an inclusive policy.

“This contract is what justified our military engagement and I say clearly here that it must be better respected,” Fabius told lawmakers.

The meeting in Paris, where more than 20 foreign ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, are due to attend, aims to plot strategy including how to reverse recent losses. Also Tuesday, the Turkish Foreign Minister said that Turkey and the U.S. have started training moderate Syrian rebels on Turkish territory to prepare them to fight ISIS.

The United States-led program to equip and train Syrian rebels on Turkish territory has started “with small groups” after months of delays, Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying by the official Anatolia news agency. “We can say that the train-and-equip [mission[ has started with small groups. All infrastructure has been completed and the necessary equipment has been supplied,” he said.

“Both the Turkish and the American personnel who will carry out the mission have been dispatched,” he said, adding that the rebels were being selected jointly by Turkey and the United States.

On Monday Cavusoglu told the pro-government Daily Sabah newspaper that Turkey and the U.S. had also agreed to provide some rebels preparing to fight ISIS with “air protection.”

Earlier this month the U.S. started training Syrian rebels in Jordan as part of a program that would extend to sites in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Ankara and Washington inked a deal in February to train and equip up to 15,000 moderate rebels on Turkish soil. But the plan has been marked by disagreement between Washington and its allies about the objective of the training.

Turkey and other regional governments want to see the rebels confront the Syrian regime, while Washington has said the first priority must be combating ISIS who hold vast swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq.