Anti-ISIL working group to stop flow of foreign fighters gathers in Turkey

ANKARA

AA Photo

Turkey has hosted a working group of the coalition to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levent (ISIL), during which further measures to stem the flow of foreign fighters across the border were discussed. 

A meeting for the “Foundation of the Counter-ISIL Foreign Terrorist Fighters Working Group” was held in Istanbul on April 7, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç has said.

Turkey and Netherlands were the co-chairs of the meeting, at which an action plan was discussed, Bilgiç added. 

The action plan, including methods for struggling against the threat of foreign terrorist fighters, is expected to be ratified in short notice, Bilgiç said in a written statement on April 9. 

The plan identifies measures that coalition members and the international community should take in the struggle against ISIL and its foreign fighters, he added.

It contains arrangements that will improve decisions by the U.N. Security Council directly targeting individual foreign terrorist fighters in Syria and Iraq, as well as targeting ISIL and al-Qaeda-linked terrorist organizations. 

The counter-ISIL coalition has established various working groups since February 2015, and will hold its next meeting in June, Bilgiç stated.

Iraq and the U.S. are together leading the working group for military counter-ISIL efforts; Turkey and the Netherlands together lead the working group for stopping the flow of foreign fighters; Italy, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. co-chair the “counter-financing” working group; Germany and the United Arab Emirates co-lead the “stabilization support” group; and the United Arab Emirates, the U.K. and the U.S. co-lead the “counter-messaging” group.

Turkey has long been subject to fierce criticism, especially from Western countries, for not working hard enough to stem the flow of foreign fighters into Syria.