Keep fighting Daesh, Tillerson tells allies
kuwait city — Washington’s top envoy on Tuesday called on allies to keep fighting the Daesh group, saying that the end of major combat did not mean “enduring defeat” of the extremists.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke at a ministerial meeting in Kuwait of the US-led military coalition that has been fighting Daesh in Iraq and Syria, being held in parallel with a conference on reconstruction in Iraq.
The militant group has lost much of the territory it once controlled when it seized large swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014.
“The end of major combat operations does not mean we have achieved the enduring defeat of Daesh,” Tillerson said. “Daesh remains a serious threat to the stability of the region, our homelands and other parts of the globe,” he said.
Iraq declared victory over Daesh in December, but the extremist group still has a presence in Syria, where the US-led coalition has backed a Kurdish-Arab alliance fighting the militants.
The US-backed campaign against Daesh in Syria has been complicated since Turkey-backed Arab militia last month began an offensive against Kurdish forces in the northwestern region of Afrin.
The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) have been a key component of the US-backed alliance fighting Daesh, but Washington’s Nato ally Turkey says they are a “terrorist” offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“We remain concerned over recent events in northwest Syria and call on all parties to remain focused on defeating Daesh,” Tillerson said.
Tillerson said the United States would nonetheless maintain an “Daesh-focused military presence in Syria” and “continue to train local security forces” — a reference to Washington’s contentious Kurdish allies.
He said Daesh had the capacity to re-emerge in liberated territories
We have seen in Iraq and syria the consequences of an daesh territorial presence. History must not be allowed to repeat itself elsewhere Rex Tillerson, US Secretary of State
of Iraq and Syria or elsewhere in the world.
“Every one of us must continue to adapt and strengthen our coalition to counter Daesh’ own network of foreign fighters, financing and propaganda.
“We have seen in Iraq and Syria the consequences of an Daesh territorial presence. History must not be allowed to repeat itself elsewhere,” Tillerson said.
War-battered Iraq sought on Tuesday to attract international investors to rebuild the country at a parallel reconstruction conference in Kuwait, offering hundreds of projects and touting extensive legal guarantees. —