John Kerry arrives in Egypt on mission to build coalition against ISIS

(CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Egypt on Saturday, in his latest stop in a diplomatic push to build regional support for President Barack Obama's strategy to combat ISIS.

His visit to Cairo follows talks with leaders in Turkey on Friday and meetings with Arab leaders in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a day earlier.

"What we are doing is engaging in a very significant counterterrorism operation," Kerry told CNN's Elise Labott in Jeddah.

"It's going to go on for some period of time. If somebody wants to think about it as being a war with ISIL, they can do so, but the fact is it's a major counterterrorism operation that will have many different moving parts."

Obama outlined a plan this week to "dismantle and ultimately destroy" the Sunni extremist group that has seized a swath of territory across Iraq and Syria.

ISIS has said it's bent on creating an Islamic "caliphate," where harsh Sharia law governs every aspect of life.