US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday the United States would set up “interim zones of stability” to help refugees return home in the next phase of the fight against Islamic State and al Qaeda.
The top US diplomat did not make clear where these zones were to be set up. He was addressing a meeting of 68 countries gathered in Washington to discuss the fight to defeat Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
“The United States will increase our pressure on Isis and al Qaeda and will work to establish interim zones of stability, through ceasefires, to allow refugees to return home,” Tillerson told the gathering at the State Department.
Creating safe zones could ratchet up US military involvement in Syria and mark a major departure from President Barack Obama’s more cautious approach. Increased US or allied air power would be required if President Donald Trump chooses to enforce ‘no fly’ restrictions, and ground forces might also be needed to protect civilians in those areas.
Islamic State has been losing ground in both Iraq and Syria, with three separate forces, backed by the United States, Turkey and Russia, advancing on the group’s Syrian stronghold city of Raqqa.
Wednesday event was the first meeting of the international coalition since the election of Trump, who has pledged to make the fight against Islamic State a priority. He vowed in January to set up safe zones in Syria for refugees.
Tillerson said the flow of foreign fighters into Syria and Iraq was down 90 percent over the past year.
“It is harder for terrorists to get in and more importantly harder for them to get out to threaten our homelands,” he said.
He called on coalition partners to make good on financial pledges to help secure and rebuild areas where Islamic State fighters have been pushed out.
The United States will do its part but circumstances on the ground require more, he said, urging allies to allocate more military, financial resources toward defeating Isis.
The meeting is the first of the international coalition since Iraqi government forces, backed by the US-led international coalition, retook several Iraqi cities from Islamic State last year and liberated eastern Mosul.
While the jihadist group is overwhelmingly outnumbered by Iraqi forces, it has been using suicide car bombs and snipers to defend its remaining strongholds.
Speaking to the same meeting, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called for unity in the region to fight Islamic State and outlined Iraq’s progress in the fight against the militant group.
Abadi met with Trump on Monday and said afterwards he had won assurances of more U.S. support in the war against Islamic State.