Foreign Ministers from 22 countries on Thursday gathered in the UK capital to discuss ways to coordinate their efforts to combat the Islamic State (ISIS) by halting the flow of recruits to the jehadi group and cutting off its funding. US Secretary of State John Kerry and UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond are co-hosting the closed-door talks between the coalition of countries that are working together to tackle the ISIS threat.
The countries taking part in the conference along with the US and UK are Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. ISIS controls large parts of Syria and Iraq and the US-led coalition has been carrying out air strikes to counter it since August, 2014. But Hammond insists much more needs to be done.
He told the BBC that the countries wanted to find ways to halt the flow of recruits to ISIS, cut off its funding and “tackle the underlying narrative”. They will also look at providing more military assistance to those fighting ISIS on the ground, and more humanitarian aid to its victims. “The engagement of the coalition and the beginning of air strikes against (IS) positions halted that advance and in some cases it has begun to turn it back,” he said.