WASHINGTON: The United States and its European allies clashed Thursday over what to do with thousands of jihadists jailed in Syria, with Washington calling a French proposal to try fighters in Iraq “irresponsible”.
Senior officials from more than 30 countries pledged greater coordination in the campaign against the Islamic State group in a meeting in Washington proposed by France, which has been particularly concerned by President Donald Trump’s decision last month to pull US troops from Syria.
Trump’s move allowed an incursion by Turkey aimed at destroying Kurdish guerrillas, who had led the fight against the Islamic State group and run jails for captured extremists in their effectively autonomous area in northern Syria.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pressed the Europeans on foreign fighters, telling them, “we’ll hold them to account”.
“Coalition members must take back the thousands of foreign terrorist fighters in custody and impose accountability for the atrocities they have perpetrated,” Pompeo said.
But Nathan Sales, the State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator, acknowledged that “there is, candidly, a difference of opinion about the best way to resolve this problem.”
“The United States thinks that it’s inappropriate to ask Iraq in particular to shoulder the additional burden of foreign fighters, particularly from Europe,” Sales told reporters after the one-day meeting.
“It would be irresponsible for any country to expect Iraq to solve that problem for them,” he said.
“We think there should be a sense of urgency to repatriate now while we still can,” he said.
Sales’s comments clearly were directed at France, which has opened talks with Iraq about trying foreign nationals.
European nations such as France and Britain have no desire to see the return of battle-hardened supporters of the ultra-violent group, which has claimed responsibility for a slew of grisly attacks against civilians.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said his government was seeking the “certain and lasting detention” of fighters and noted that the vast majority of prisoners were Iraqis and Syrians.
“For our part, we will continue to say that they should be tried as close as possible to the crimes they committed,” he told reporters. – AFP
