Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Jarallah confirmed yesterday Kuwait’s unequivocal support of the global coalition to counter Daesh.
In a speech opening the fourth meeting of the officials from the member states of the coalition, Jarallah said “Kuwait backs the international community in its efforts to bring stability to liberated areas from the grip of terrorist organizations,” adding that Kuwait also supports the international community in seeking to dry up sources of funding terrorism, repelling electronic hacking attacks and staving off the influx of foreign fighters to conflict areas.
He told the meeting that Kuwait’s support involved, among other things, providing logistical support to the efforts of the international community as well as taking part in meetings such as yesterday’s. He noted that Kuwait has hosted numerous conferences on fighting terrorism and has demonstrated its abidance of UN resolutions regarding terrorism.
Jarallah said yesterday’s meeting was taking place in the shadow of continuing threats by terrorist organizations to the peace and security of the world, so much that these threats had moved from countries rife in conflicts to peaceful countries with no such conflicts. For this reason, he said the international community should double its efforts at fighting this universal threat. “We as nations bear a historical responsibility to ensure a safe and secure world as codified by the UN resolution No. 2253 that urges combating terrorism and drying up its sources of funding in every shape and form,” he said.
Moreover, he indicated that the international community was closely watching such meetings to obtain cues from it as to what ought to be done decisively to defeat the ideologies and activities of terrorist organizations. However, he cautioned that “all religions and faiths, among them Islam, espouse love, peace and tolerance, and eschew violence and extremism, and in that vein it would be inappropriate to link terrorist organizations with a particular religion or race of people.”
Speaking at the meeting also was special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter Daesh, Brett McGurk, who commended Kuwait’s role in the coalition. “We express our gratitude to our host, the State of Kuwait, for its important role in the coalition and as a leader in the area of humanitarian support to the Iraqi and Syrian people, recognizing that it has to date hosted three donor conferences for Syria, co-hosted the February 4, 2016 donors conference for Syria in London and pledged $200 million for humanitarian aid in Iraq,” he said.
Referring to IS specifically, he said: “We welcome the momentum we have witnessed in recent months against Daesh (IS) in Iraq and Syria. Daesh continues to lose territory as well as control of strategic resupply routes and resources.” He added “Daesh continues to be degraded in other significant ways. It has been losing its leaders at a high rate and has lost large numbers of fighters. Its resource base is drying up as coalition strikes have lowered Daesh’s oil production by at least 30 percent and destroyed millions of dollars stored in bank vaults and other locations.”
McGurk added: “Mindful of the many challenges Daesh (IS) poses in diverse regions, we remain committed to sustaining the momentum of the global coalition to counter Daesh,” noting that the next meeting of the coalition was planned for July 2016 in Washington.
In its statement later, the coalition stressed its continuing “deep concern” over the humanitarian situation in Iraq and Syria. The statement urged the international community to keep tabs on the humanitarian situation in these two countries in line with the pledges made at the London donors’ conference in February towards helping Syrian refugees. The statement noted that IS still remained a “threat” despite its recent losses and scaling back of its terrorist activities, stressing that defeating Daesh was “an arduous and long” task.
The statement emphasized the group’s commitment to supporting civil and military undertakings to free the areas in Iraq and Syria currently occupied by IS, rehabilitate them and help the freed populations there to get back on their feet. Moreover, the statement said the group would stick by UN resolutions condemning and fighting terrorism and would seek to dry up funding for Daesh, its recruitment of foreign fighters and illegal trade.
The group welcomed the establishment of coalition centers that deal with fighting Daesh electronically through the use of the Internet and the social media networks, among other hi-tech methods. The coalition said that removing landmines and explosives from liberated areas from the grip of IS and training of local law enforcement were important in rehabilitating these areas.
The statement affirmed the coalition’s support of the Iraqi government particularly as it is confronting the difficulties of coping with lower oil prices, rising cost of fighting terrorism and the pressing need to look after the internally displaced. On Syria, the statement said the coalition backs all efforts for a political transition of power in that country in line with the Geneva declaration of 2012 and UN Security Council Resolution 2254.
The statement urged for cessation of hostilities in Syria, ending sporadic bombings, continuing to fight IS there and the starting of a peace dialogue under the auspices of the UN, this being the only way to keep the country unified and with recognized sovereignty. As for Libya, the statement said the coalition was willing to help the government of national unity in its efforts at broadening the work of Libyan institutions and agencies to bring lasting peace and stability to the country and defeat Daesh there.
