N - Counter-#ISIL Coalition Small Group Meeting in #London & press point by Philip Hammond and John Kerry - On Thursday, 22/01/2015, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond hosted the Small Group of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL one day meeting to discuss the threat of Islamic State, at Lancaster House in London. Senior officials from 21 countries including Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi and French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius gathered in London to discuss efforts to tackle the militant group IS in Syria and Iraq. #JohnKerry: We have gone from zero at the end of September to now in January, you know, on the 4th month, having stopped ISILs advance in Iraq, having negated their resources, their capacity to move foreign fighters to a significant degree, and changed their operations as a result of what weve been able to do. We still have a lot of work to do, and the purpose of coming here is to bring everybodys best advice, everybodys thoughts about where there may be weaknesses, everybodys thoughts about things we can do better, put that together, improve our own performance and operations, and lay down a strategy for the days ahead. (...) We will do that regularly on the ministers level. (...) It is important to coordinate. (...) (Answering a question of BBC News) Well, I dont think people should be dismayed, I think they should be encouraged in fact. Police forces, law-enforcement community, intelligence community of many countries have come together in an incredibly effective way to fight against an insidious, long time planning process that has been in place, and in a sense we are flushing them out. These sleeper cells have been there for years now, many of these plans have been in place for a long period of time, long preceding what weve been doing with respect to ISIS. But the truth is that these groups are planning and have been planning for a long period of time, going back to Osama bin Laden and 9/11 in New York to attack Western interests and to go after anybody that they disagree with. Their goal is to suppress and to take over and to expand a very nihilistic, unbelievably oppressive sense of how people have to live. And weve seen them carried out in the most horrendous fashion with public beheadings they are now threatening Japanese hostages with. I think this is a challenge for all of us, its the challenge of our time, and we need to step up, and lead, and be strong, and be clear about what is at stake, and thats exactly why we meet here today. © Frédérick Moulin 2015 - EU2015 - Council - All rights reserved. Text: © Frédérick Moulin 2015 - All rights reserved.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 13:27:09 +0000
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