Anti-IS coalition urged to keep focus
‘Turkey operation in Syria a distraction’
KUWAIT CITY, Feb 13, (Agencies): The Trump administration, increasingly concerned that the 74-strong coalition it cobbled together to destroy the Islamic State group is losing sight of the prime objective, pressed its partners on Tuesday to refocus their efforts, overcome rivalries and concentrate on the task at hand: the eradication from Iraq and Syria of the
extremist group.
The alarm US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sounded at a coalition gathering in Kuwait came with the fight at a critical moment and the mission shifting from offensive military operations to stabilization.
Distractions are adding up, such as Turkey’s fighting with US-backed Kurdish rebels in Syria and intensifying anti-American rhetoric from Turkish leaders. Meanwhile, renewed spillover from Syria’s civil war, including hostilities between non-coalition actors — Iran, its proxies in Syria, and Israel — risk creating a new conflict in an already crowded battle space.
“The end of major combat operations does not mean we have achieved the enduring defeat of ISIS,” Tillerson told the meeting in Kuwait City, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State group.
“ISIS remains a serious threat to the stability of the region, our homelands and other parts of the globe,” he said. “Without continued attention and support from coalition members, we risk the return of extremist groups like ISIS in liberated areas of Iraq and Syria and their spread to new locations.”
Tillerson announced that the United States would contribute an additional $200 million “to further support critical stabilization and early recovery initiatives in liberated areas of Syria,” bringing Washington’s total contribution to humanitarian efforts to nearly $7.9 billion since the conflict in Syria began in 2011.
It was not immediately clear how that money would be distributed. Tillerson reaffirmed that the US “would maintain a conditions-based and ISIS-focused military presence in Syria” that would in part continue to train local security forces.
US officials said the thrust of Tillerson’s message was that “eyes have to be on the prize” and anything that hinders IS’ defeat will impair broader objectives such as a political transition in Syria that ultimately leads to an end of the war and blunts Iranian behavior throughout the region.
“It’s complicated enough as it is. Let’s not make it more so,” one official said in describing the administration’s view.
Rising tensions between the US and NATO ally Turkey over Turkish military operations against the Syrian Kurds are a primary concern and Tillerson will end his five-nation swing through the region in Ankara on Friday, after stops in Jordan and Lebanon.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ramped up his criticism of the US on Tuesday, reacting angrily to reports that the Trump administration has proposed a boost in funding to
Syrian Kurdish militia in its proposed budget for the next fiscal year. Erdogan also took aim at comments from US commanders in northern Syria, who said any attack on them or Kurdish partners would be met with force.
“To those who say ‘if they hit us, we will respond with force,’ it is clear that they have never experienced the Ottoman slap,” Erdogan said.
A day earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Melvut Cavusoglu said Tillerson’s upcoming visit, which follows a similar trip by national security adviser H.R. McMaster, comes at a make-orbreak time for relations between the US and Turkey.
Ankara is riled over Washington’s support for the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG — the top US ally in the fight against IS. Turkey considers the YPG a “terrorimportant
ist” group linked to Kurdish insurgents fighting within Turkey’s own borders.
At the meeting In Kuwait, Tillerson made a point of noting concerns about the situation and urged “all parties to remain focused on defeating ISIS, deescalating and resolving the Syrian conflict and protecting innocent civilians.”
US officials allowed that Tillerson’s talks in Ankara would be difficult.
But, they maintained — as Tillerson did again on Tuesday — that the US appreciates Turkey’s legitimate security concerns. However, the officials also stressed that addressing those should not come at the expense of the anti-IS mission. If the Syrian Kurds feel threatened, the officials said, they will move their forces away from Islamic State fronts, prolonging the fight.
In addition to keeping the fight against IS in Iraq and Syria on the front burner, Tuesday’s meetings in Kuwait will also focus on preventing the spread into Europe and elsewhere of retreating IS fighters.
Tillerson said the US supports a new blueprint for boosting intelligence and information sharing and law enforcement cooperation to halt the flow of those fighters.
“In Iraq and Syria, ISIS is attempting to morph into an insurgency. In places like Afghanistan, the Philippines, Libya, West Africa and others it is trying to carve out and secure safe havens,” Tillerson said. “We have seen in Iraq and Syria the consequences of an ISIS territorial presence. History must not be allowed to repeat itself elsewhere.”
Tillerson, meanwhile, said on Tuesday that Turkey’s operation against Kurdish forces in northwestern Syria has “detracted” from the larger coalition war against the Islamic State group.
“It has detracted from our fight to defeat Islamic State in eastern Syria,” Tillerson said of ongoing offensives by US-backed Kurdish militia to clear remaining pockets of extremists.
“Forces have diverted from there to Afrin,” he said.
Turkey has repeatedly called on the United States to stop working with the Kurdish YPG militia, which it views as an extension of the blacklisted Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK).
On Sunday, Ankara threatened to expand its anti-YPG operation east of the Euphrates, warning that American soldiers risked being targeted in the area if they wore enemy uniform.
Tillerson said he would be in Ankara later in the week to determine a path forward with Turkish counterparts.
“We have been in discussions with our NATO ally Turkey,” he told reporters in Kuwait City.
“We think it’s important that they are mindful of the effect (the operation) is having on our principal mission, which is the defeat of ISIS.”
New prospects for joint coordination among members of the International Coalition against the so-called Islamic State (IS) should be created, Kuwait’s Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah said Tuesday.
His remark opened the meeting of International Coalition against IS, which kicked off earlier today at the level of foreign ministers.
“Despite positive developments and noticeable results on ground, yet the international community is still facing a direct threat from armed terrorist groups. This requires joint coordination and developing the Coalition’s strategy to fight IS,” the Kuwaiti top diplomat noted.
The meeting is one of many events comprising the Kuwait International Conference for the Reconstruction of Iraq (KICRI), will be divided into two sessions, with the first tackling the fight against IS and the second examining anti-terrorism efforts.
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ROME: The US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group was locked in a debate Tuesday over the future of its campaign in war-ravaged Syria and the fate of foreign jihadist fighters captured there.
Months of intense fighting saw USbacked forces liberate the IS stronghold of Raqqa in October, leaving the group’s one-time “caliphate” in tatters.
But the US fears that the jihadists could regain a foothold in the bombedout region.
The thorny issue of what to do with the hundreds of foreign jihadists now detained in Syria will also be a key issue at the meeting in the Italian capital.
Those detainees include two Britons said to have carried out numerous beheadings.
The problem has sparked intense debate in the West about whether such fighters should be returned to their home countries to face justice.
Pentagon official Kathy Wheelbarger, accompanying Mattis, said: “We are working with the coalition on foreign fighter detainees and generally expect those detainees to return to their country of origin for disposition.”
But the fate of the two Britons, Alexanda Amon Kotey and El Shafee el-Sheikh — captured by US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces in January — remains uncertain.
Britain’s Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson told The Sun newspaper last week: “I don’t think they should ever set foot in this country again.”