EL
CINISMO DE ESTADOS UNIDOS: SE ATRIBUYE LA VICTORIA EN SIRIA!!!
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CCO
Hoy a las 10:57
Ojos para la Paz
Fue
Occidente, junto con Israel y Arabia Saudita quienes crearon al Estado
Islámico, lo expandieron por varios países y lo protegía y ahora, que
rusos, sirios, iraníes, iraquíes, kurdos y el hezbolá lo han derrotado, a pesar
de que Estados Unidos continúa alimentándolo hasta el último momento, salen a
reclamar el triunfo. Su cinismo no tiene límites, ni su falta de vergüenza
Comunicado y Rueda de Prensa del Gobierno de los EE.UU.
Buenos días amigos, colegas y miembros de la Coalición Global para
Derrotar a ISIS. Es un honor estar hoy con ustedes para analizar el progreso
increíble que nuestra Coalición de 74 miembros ha hecho contra el Estado
Islámico en Irak y Siria.
Hace poco más de tres años, ISIS se estaba expandiendo rápidamente. El
mundo nunca había visto algo así. 40,000 combatientes extranjeros de más de 100
países ingresaron a Siria y luego a Iraq. ISIS se infiltró y luego tomó el
control de ciudades enteras, desde Raqqa en el verano de 2013, a Fallujah en
enero de 2014, luego a Mosul, Tikrit, Ramadi ... e incluso se acercó a los
bordes de Bagdad.
Controlaba millones de personas, ciudades enteras, incluidas las
capitales duales en Raqqa y Mosul, generando ingresos a través del petróleo y
el gas, impuestos, antigüedades, comercio, toma de rehenes, de más de mil
millones de dólares por año.
Se esclavizó a miles de niñas, cometió actos de genocidio contra grupos
minoritarios, buscó destruir nuestro patrimonio humano común, y estableció
franquicias en su búsqueda para difundir el terror.
A partir de este llamado califato, ISIS planificó y planeó grandes
ataques contra nuestra patria. Envió equipos de terroristas de Raqqa para
atacar a civiles inocentes en París, Bruselas y Estambul.
Funcionó para inspirar ataques desde sus centros de medios basados en
Raqqa en los Estados Unidos y varias capitales de Europa. Cuando el presidente
Trump asumió el cargo, algunas de nuestras primeras reuniones de seguridad
nacional consistieron en tramar tramas fuera de Raqqa y las áreas circundantes.
Todos en esta sala saben lo que sucedió en respuesta a esta amenaza.
Creamos una coalición, ahora la más grande de la historia, con 70 países y
cuatro organizaciones internacionales (OTAN, Liga Árabe, UE e INTERPOL) y,
juntos, luchamos.
Nuestro plan de campaña se basó en las fuerzas locales para luchar,
fusionando los esfuerzos militares con ayuda humanitaria y de estabilización
inmediata en áreas liberadas, y construyendo una red global para combatir a los
combatientes extranjeros del ISIS, el financiamiento y la propaganda.
Cuando el presidente Trump asumió el cargo, una de sus primeras
directivas fue acelerar esta campaña. Esto resultó en una revisión exhaustiva
de la campaña dirigida por el Secretario Mattis y una nueva estrategia que ha
sido más eficiente y efectiva que nunca.
El registro ahora habla por sí mismo.
La Coalición y nuestras fuerzas asociadas han despejado casi 90,000
kilómetros cuadrados, liberando más del 95% del territorio que el ISIS controló
una vez en Irak y Siria. Más de un tercio de estas ganancias se han producido
en los últimos ocho meses, gracias a los aceleradores autorizados por el
presidente a principios de este año.
ISIS no ha recapturado un solo metro de este territorio.
Más de 7,5 millones de personas han sido liberadas de ISIS.
Nuestros esfuerzos dirigidos por civiles han ayudado a 2.6 millones de
iraquíes a regresar a sus hogares, y estamos comenzando a ver una línea de
tendencia similar en Siria.
Los combatientes extranjeros que ingresan a Siria casi se han detenido
por completo y el financiamiento de ISIS ha bajado a su nivel más bajo, con
fuentes fuera de Siria ahora secas.
Así que juntos, hemos recorrido un largo camino, pero aún queda mucho
por hacer, y ese es el tema principal de mi charla.
Las liberaciones de Raqqa y Mosul son hitos importantes. Pero ISIS sigue
siendo un enemigo determinado y aún no ha sido derrotado.
SIGUE
So together, we have come a
very long way – but there is more to do, and that is the main theme of my talk.
The liberations of Raqqa
and Mosul are major milestones. But ISIS remains a determined enemy and it is
not yet defeated.
My remarks today will
highlight three non-military areas that, in our view, require enhanced focus
over the coming weeks and months:
·
First, our
stabilization efforts: we must continue to stabilize areas liberated from ISIS
in both Iraq and Syria. This will require more investment from all of our
coalition capitals.
·
Second, our
diplomacy to stabilize the region after ISIS: we must work diplomatically to
find political arrangements in Iraq and Syria that can continue trend-lines
towards stability and an enduring defeat of ISIS, without a new ISIS, or
extremists linked to Iran, filling the void.
·
Third, we must
continue to adapt and strengthen a global network to counter ISIS’ own global
network of foreign fighters, financing, propaganda. (A network to defeat a
network, a key theme of this conference.)
I.
Stabilization in Iraq and Syria
I will begin, first, with
stabilization.
In building our campaign
plan, we sought to correct for what has not worked in the past. We did not seek
to direct reconstruction projects, or build political structures that had no
firm basis in the local community and legitimate authorities.
Instead, we focused on
immediate priorities – humanitarian relief, de-mining, and essential services
(electricity, water, health) – working “by, with, and through” local partners
to facilitate the safe and voluntary return of people to their homes in the
wake of ISIS. This planning was done in parallel with our military planning,
and every military operation was matched with a humanitarian and stabilization
plan.
Let me focus on two
examples, Mosul, and Raqqa.
In Mosul, we planned for a
worst-case scenario of one million IDPs (internally displaced persons) – and
that worst case came true. Throughout the battle, which lasted nearly nine
months, over one million people were displaced. Yet every one of those persons according
to UN data, every single one, received assistance. This record is due to our
preparations, including over $2 billion raised in March after Secretary
Tillerson gathered all the members of our Coalition in Washington.
We followed this immediate
humanitarian plan with a stabilization plan. In Mosul today, over 340
stabilization projects totaling over $200 million are underway. I have visited
water treatment facilities just outside Mosul that are now running thanks to
coalition contributions from your capitals, electricity generation facilities
now being repaired, and schools being refurbished. We have also flooded
resources to the local level to put young men back to work and bring life back
to the streets.
In east Mosul today, nearly
all of those displaced during military operations have returned. More than
350,000 children are back in school. Markets are open and daily life is
beginning to return to normal.
West Mosul is more
difficult. The final phase of the battle – which was incredibly costly for the
Iraqis, with an exceptionally high number of heroic Iraqi Security Force
members killed or injured fighting hundreds of foreign fighters wearing suicide
vests – destroyed most of the Old City. Large-scale returns have not yet begun
in west Mosul due to IED contamination and lack of access to many neighborhoods
– over 700,000 remain displaced.
At the UN General Assembly
in September, in a meeting with Coalition foreign ministers, Secretary
Tillerson emphasized the need for further assistance for west Mosul – and key
contributors have stepped up, particularly Germany with a large contribution
for west Mosul alone. The quicker we are able to fund and implement
stabilization projects the sooner we will be able to reduce the costs of the
humanitarian crisis. We are committed to returning the population of the
western side of the city as soon as possible, as we did on the east side of the
city.
Elsewhere in Iraq, as I
mentioned, stabilization programs and Prime Minister Abadi’s policy of
decentralization have enabled the return of 2.6 million Iraqis – nearly
all Sunni Arabs displaced by ISIS – to their homes.
In Anbar province alone,
one of the earliest provinces to fall to ISIS in 2014, over one million Iraqis
have returned home, including almost the entire populations of Ramadi and
Fallujah. Similarly, in Salah Ad-Din province, the entire population of Tikrit
has returned, and life has returned largely to normal with the university open
and children in school.
Again, this happened
because we planned for stabilization in parallel with military operations,
preparing to remove explosive remnants of war, ensuring the central government
carried through its policy of de-centralization, and focusing on immediate high
impact needs with coalition contributions helping to ensure that our military
gains were enduring. That ISIS has not reclaimed any areas it lost in Iraq is a
record that speaks for itself, and we now must work to keep it that way.
Syria is more challenging.
We do not have a government to work with, and we will not work with the Assad
regime or support reconstruction in areas he controls until there is a credible
political process that can lead to a government chosen by the Syrian people –
without Assad at its helm. Yet, in areas where the Coalition is operating, we
have applied the same lessons from Iraq, with focus on immediate high-impact
needs.
I was in Syria shortly
before operations in Raqqa concluded in mid-October. As in Mosul, we visited
key stabilization projects just outside the city, including a water treatment
facility to restore fresh water to the city. To provide a scale of what we
confront, at this one facility, coalition supported de-mining teams were still
at work – and had already cleared more than 150 explosive devices. ISIS in its
waning months is salting the earth with explosives to ensure life cannot return
to areas it loses.
As a Coalition, therefore,
we are stepping up our de-mining activities, training local Syrians to spot and
then clear all manner of IEDs left behind by ISIS terrorists. I am grateful for
recent contributions from Germany, France, and the UK to help close the $50
million gap in funding for these de-mining programs; I would ask all of you to
encourage your foreign ministries to find ways to help in these areas. I was pleased
to be joined on my latest visit by a delegation from Saudi Arabia, and we are
able to connect any Coalition partner with a list of urgent projects to help
return Syrians to their homes.
Today, as we speak, our
de-mining teams are in the streets of Raqqa, clearing the main hospital, which
was not significantly damaged during the fighting. Rubble removal teams are
clearing streets to bring humanitarian aid into the city, and reach the
displaced. To date, over 830 metric tons of humanitarian aid has been delivered
to more than 40 locations around the city of Raqqa, and local councils are
facilitating the delivery of aid to civilians in fully cleared areas of the
city itself. We are building on success that we have had in nearby cities, such
as Tabqa, where normal life is returning.
This is essential, and
unglamorous, work. A small team of U.S. experts – on de-mining, humanitarian
assistance, and essential services – is working hand-in-glove with our military
and partners on the ground.
And we all know that our
campaign is not over after Raqqa. An estimated six thousand ISIS fighters
remain trapped in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, and we are determined to
root them out on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border. The Syrian Democratic
Forces that won the battle in Raqqa have already made considerable military
progress in the fight against ISIS along the east side of the river.
Our stabilization efforts
must keep pace. In Syria, our U.S. team lead on stabilization has just deployed
for a one-year tour, and we must be prepared as a Coalition to sustain this
commitment and help ensure that ISIS’s defeat is enduring.
Over the past 8 weeks,
partners have pledged approximately $1 billion, and we hope to meet our overall
pledge goal of $2 billion for humanitarian assistance, demining, and
stabilization needs in Iraq and Syria for 2018 by the end of the year. However,
we are still facing a gap of $500 million in unmet needs that will be critical
to ensuring we can get people home to western Mosul, as well as a $50 million
gap for ERW in Syria.
II. Diplomatic
and Political
If stabilization is the
immediate step in the wake of military operations, the diplomacy is the
medium-term step and most essential for longer-term gains.
It is also, by far, the
most difficult, with history, culture, internecine local politics, and regional
relationships, all in a constant interplay as events unfold on the ground.
In post-ISIS Iraq, we want
to see an Iraq that is united, federal, democratic, and strong, able to exert
its own interests, counter pernicious Iranian influences, and integrated into
the Arab fold regionally.
This will take time, and
national elections, now set for May 12, 2018, will be pivotal. For now, we can
outline three important focus areas for our coalition – military, economic, and
political.
First, we must ensure the
gains we have made with the Iraqi Security Forces – on the mat three years ago
but now some of the most battle-tested and professional in the region –
continue. That means a force that is disciplined, professional, and answers
only to Iraqi chain of command up to the Prime Minister. Together we have
trained over 120,000 members of the Iraqi Security Forces. As the Government of
Iraq has stated publicly, militias or other armed factions that do not answer
to the Prime Minister must be reined in.
This will require an
enduring coalition commitment. Training, logistics, counter-terrorism, security
sector reform, and intelligence – these missions will endure after ISIS, and
they will be essential to ensuring that ISIS cannot return.
NATO, one of the newest
members of our coalition, will also have a role to play, and I was encouraged
during a recent briefing to the North Atlantic Council and last week at the
NATO Defense Ministerial in Brussels that all 29 NATO Allies confirmed their
readiness to contribute.
Second, to stand on its own
post-ISIS, a strong and sovereign Iraq should enjoy diversified regional
relationships. President Trump and Secretary Tillerson earlier this year
identified an opening between Iraq and Saudi Arabia as a priority, a focus that
has paid off with a historic rapprochement between these two partner capitals.
The Iraq-Saudi border is
now open and commercial flights beginning for the first time in 27 years.
Security and economic exchanges have begun, and on October 22, King Abdullah,
together with Secretary Tillerson and Prime Minister Abadi inaugurated a
permanent coordinating council between both countries.
With Jordan, we are working
to establish a secure commerce route between Baghdad and Amman – $1 billion in
trade before ISIS – and with Egypt and Jordan, the Iraqis are discussing a
pipeline from Basra to Aqaba, an export line independent of the Persian Gulf,
ultimately delivering oil and gas to Egypt.
These are long-term
projects, but they are essential to long-term stability.
Third, Iraq must have a
strong economy, and here our coalition has played an important role behind the
scenes, encouraging key reforms, which unlocked an IMF Stand-by Arrangement
(SBA) and World Bank development loans. Next year, our key partner Kuwait will
host a reconstruction conference to focus on the longer-term reconstruction
needs in cities liberated from ISIS. We are grateful for the leadership of
Kuwait for putting together this conference.
Finally, all components in
Iraq, including the Kurdistan Regional Government, must be full partners in a
unified and federal Iraq. This means a functioning federalism, with authorities
delegated to provinces and the Kurdistan region, and the region accepting its
constitutional role in a united and federal Iraq. The United States is fully
and actively engaged to de-escalate the tensions that erupted in some of the
disputed internal boundaries, and we are continuing to work towards a
comprehensive package of measures to calm tensions at this hour.
In Syria, as President
Trump said the other day, we are entering a new phase. This phase will focus on
de-escalating violence overall in Syria through a combination of ceasefires and
de-escalation areas. These bottom-up efforts will be designed to create the
conditions for a national level political process in Geneva on the basis of
UNSCR 2254, including the drafting of a new constitution and UN-supervised
elections with diaspora voting. At the end of this process, we should see a new
Syria, whole and unified, with no role for Bashar al-Assad in the government.
Syria remains an extremely
complex situation, but last month at the UN General Assembly, sixteen countries
– all key partners of ours on Syria – met and agreed to the following
principles:
1.
First, it is
imperative that we continue the campaign against ISIS and efforts to defeat
Jabhat al-Nusra to ensure that neither can retain safe haven.
2.
Second, a
political solution to the Syria crisis can only be resolved through full
implementation of the Geneva process under UNSCR 2254.
3.
Third, there
will be no recovery and reconstruction support for Assad controlled areas of
Syria absent a credible political process leading to a genuine political transition
supported by a majority of the Syrian people.
4.
Finally,
de-escalation zones and other ceasefire initiatives – such as the southwest
Syria ceasefire negotiated by the US, Jordan and Russia – are necessary but not
sufficient to set a foundation for the political solution through the Geneva
process.
We will be discussing these
issues further and in more detail in our partner capitals over the coming
weeks.
III.
Strengthening our Global Coalition Network
Finally, expanding the lens
away from the ISIS core in Iraq and Syria, our coalition has worked on building
a network to defeat ISIS’s global network.
Our Coalition has focused
from the outset on building a global network to disrupt ISIS’s foreign fighter flows,
counter its financing, and defeat its propaganda.
Counter Foreign Fighters
For foreign fighters, UN
Security Council Resolution 2178 for the first time called on all member states
to enact laws to help identify and counter the flow of foreign terrorist
fighters across borders. As a coalition, we have worked to integrate law enforcement
and intelligence to share information in real time, and added INTERPOL last
year as a formal member of our Coalition, fusing information from 60 countries
for a global database that now includes nearly 43,000 names.
The objective is for every
border patrol agent, customs official, or policeman on the beat, to have access
to the same database of information – thereby stopping known terrorists who
have fought with, or tried to fight with, ISIS, before they can carry out an
attack. We are making progress:
·
More than 69
countries now have laws to prosecute and penalize foreign terrorist fighter
activities (for instance, the act of traveling outside one’s country to join a
terrorist organization).
·
At least 70
countries have prosecuted or arrested foreign terrorist fighters or their
facilitators.
·
The United
States has concluded information-sharing arrangements with over 60 partners to
help identify, track, and deter known and suspected terrorists.
And through an
information-sharing platform here in Jordan, more than two dozen coalition
partners are working 24/7 to analyze and share information from the battlefield
and open sources to connect dots and stop attacks on our homelands. This
innovative approach, with co-location and sharing information in real time, has
stopped attacks, and we believe marks the wave of the future.
We are also grateful for
Turkey’s extraordinary efforts along its border to halt the transit of foreign
fighters into or out of Syria. Their operations in Euphrates Shield helped
finally stop this transit route, and protect our homelands.
Counter-Finance
ISIS’s ability to generate
revenue has also been significantly reduced.
Coalition airstrikes have
struck 5,000 ISIS energy targets, including 2,000 tanker trucks and cash
storage facilities. We are also now in the proces of enabling operations to
seize oil infrastructure still under ISIS control.
The Departments of State
and Treasury are working closely to designate known ISIS financiers, and we
believe most outside sources of revenue are severed.
Counter Messaging
Finally, our coalition is
now countering ISIS’s message 24/7, working with partner governments to create
a network of messaging centers and initiatives that expose, refute and combat
terrorist propaganda. Messaging centers in UAE, UK, and Malaysia are having an
impact, as are the leading efforts from Saudi Arabia to counter the false
appeals to Islam from ISIS and other extremist groups.
The private sector is also
fully engaged. Twitter has now suspended more than 935,000 ISIS- related or
ISIS-affiliated sites since August 2015. In the first half of this year alone,
Twitter removed nearly 300,000 accounts related to terrorism and 75 percent of
them were taken down before they could post an initial tweet. These efforts
must continue.
Conclusion
With major combat
operations against ISIS nearing completion, we must not lose focus. Together,
we will need to continue to grapple with the challenges ahead. ISIS is an
adaptive enemy, and we will need to remain engaged with the considerable kinetic
and non-kinetic resources only our Global Coalition can bring to bear in order
to ensure ISIS’s lasting defeat.
Thank you, again, for the
opportunity to speak with you, and I look forward to continuing this discussion
throughout the day.
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