Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of Isil, appeared in a video in July in which he announced at a mosque in Mosul that the organisation was changing its name from Isis to Islamic State, and aimed at controlling a swathe of the Middle East "up to Rome".
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, has said the security council too often lacks resolve to end conflicts and save lives.
In theory, a caliphate is more than just a country that happens to be officially Muslim; it is supposed to encompass every Muslim on earth. The present-day Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Iraqi jihadist leader who declared himself the new caliph, in declaring himself a caliph and his terrorist mini-state a caliphate, is communicating that he believes he is fighting on behalf of all Muslims worldwide (he does not count Shia Muslims in this, only Sunnis) and that he is the representative of God on earth. He is also sort of suggesting a desire to continue ISIS's advance until he has conquered all Muslim-majority lands, which is an aspiration that's hinted at frequently in jihadist maps of a unified Islamic empire: