The battle against the Islamic State is far from over, as evidenced by this morning’s meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS at the State Department. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo leads the lineup of speakers and will address the D-ISIS small group ministerial at 10 a.m.
There was concern last month that the coalition of 81 countries might be crumbling in the wake of President Trump’s orders withdrawing all U.S forces from northern Syria. Now that the Pentagon has announced that 500 to 600 will remain, though, the conference will focus on next steps.
“We are very happy with the decision that the president took to continue our D-ISIS military mission on the ground in northeast Syria, and the members of the coalition are universally supportive of that decision,” a senior State Department told reporters this week. “What we’re going to be doing is essentially recalibrating.”
The official outlined the plan.
“We’re assembling some 35-plus member-states and organizations, the key ones who are involved in operations in Syria and Iraq or otherwise supporting the effort through funding and civilian operations, to meet with us and to go over developments over the past month,” the official said. The agenda includes “the Turkish incursion into northeast Syria; Russian and Syrian regime intervention into that area; status of our partner, the SDF, in the fight against ISIS; and next-ups and where we’re going, including the American presence and the kind of asks we have from the coalition.”
Jamie McIntyre is the Washington Examiner‘s senior writer on defense and national security. His morning newsletter, “Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense,” is free and available by email subscription at dailyondefense.com.
