The Obama administration is hosting the members of the Global Coaltiion to counter ISIL (the Islamic State) for a major meeting.
With a major military campaign expected to retake Mosul, one distraction at the summit is the state of US-UK relations, with British foreign minister Boris Johnson participating for the first time.
Our U.S. correspondent Priscilla Huff has a preview:
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry wants this summit to be about the reality of the fight against the group styling itself the Islamic State
TAKE CLIP Kerry
So this is what we mean when we say that Daesh cannot be defeated by military means alone. To eliminate Daesh from Iraq permanently, the government in Baghdad has got to be viewed as responsive to the needs of the people
TRACK
But there are a lot of questions about one of the coalition's key members
the United Kingdom.
It's the first major international summit for Boris Johnson, the new British Foreign Secretary.
TAKE BORIS
A Britain that is more active, more outward facing, more energetic on the world stage than ever before.
TRACK
Except that he was a key campaigner for the Brexit - the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union
and, he's previously insulted a lot of participants in the meeting.
That, at a time when this is a meeting about coming together,
especially with the tragedy in Nice fresh in everyone's minds,
even if hte U.S. says there's no proof DAESH ordered the attack.
German Foreign Minister FrankWalter Steinmeier
TAKE CLIP
we have to protect ourselves in Europe and other places in the world, and therefore, what we need is closer cooperation between the police, intelligence services, and so on.
On the other side, the military fight against ISIS is not yet finished, and I think we have – we all have a moral and political obligation to release these people, especially in Iraq and in Syria, from their slavery under ISIS.
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To do that, the next goal is to retake Mosul which has been under Islamic State control for about two years.
U.S. President Barack Obama is sending additional American forces to support that mission
but U-S Secretary of State John Kerry is making no predictions.
TAKE BITE KERRY
We are ahead of the schedule with respect to the beginnings of the operations, but I'm not going to predict when it will happen. What I will predict with the same confidence that Frank-Walter said it and I think all my colleagues say it – we are going to end the terror of Daesh holding territory and holding itself out as a state and terrorizing citizens of cities, but that will not end terrorism itself.
TRACK
And following upon the defence ministers meetings
and with intelligence officials and Interpol in the room,
there is already the acknowledgement that even once the group styling itself the Islamic State is defeated
the fight against the ideology
the radical and false interpretation of Islamism
which inspires the acts of terrorism
will remain.
Priscilla Huff, WASHINGTON
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