WASHINGTON, D.C. — Foreign ministers of the international anti-ISIS coalition are set to meet on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., where US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will convey US President Donald Trump’s next strategic steps against the extremist group.
The plan Trump received at the end of February has been described as rapid and broad by the Pentagon’s spokesman.
"It is a plan to rapidly defeat ISIS," the Associated Press reported Jeff Davis, a US navy captain, as saying in late February.
"This is a broad plan," he said. "It is global. It is not just military. It is not just Iraq/Syria."
Details of the report presented to Trump are classified as secret, and the president’s spokesperson hasn’t revealed much in daily press briefings.
Trump’s proposed budget to congress included a $54 billion increase in military spending, and 28 percent decrease in funding for state department.
Ahead of the 68-country strong coalition meeting, Kurdish and Iraqi delegations have been in Washington all week, both having met with Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Tillerson, and other top officials.
Since Abadi became PM, Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces backed by the US-led coalition have seen unprecedented cooperation in the fight to retake large swathes of ISIS-held territory.
Chief of Staff of Kurdistan Region’s president Fuad Hussein who attended Monday and Tuesday’s meetings said that both Trump and Tillerson were eager to know the nature of ties between Baghdad and Erbil in the post-ISIS era.
“He hoped these relations will expand and improve,” Hussein told Rudaw, referring to Tillerson.
Iraq’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari told Rudaw that Iraq had recorded great victory against ISIS and therefore the support for Iraq should continue especially for the reconstruction of Mosul after ISIS.
“[Pence and Abadi] also reaffirmed their commitment to the long-term partnership between the United States and Iraq grounded in the U.S.-Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement," according to a statement released by the VP after Tuesday’s meeting, which Hussein attended.
Kurdish leaders have warned that defeating ISIS will take commitments by the international community that extend beyond the battlefield.
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