Then walter jones and John Garramendi will talk about the bill to withdraw u. S. Troops from afghanistan. Watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern tuesday morning. Join the discussion. Now secretary of state Rex Tillerson hosts a Foreign Ministers from 68 Different Countries to discuss global efforts in combatting isis. Both secretary tillerson and the iraqi Prime Minister addressed the group. This is about 45 minutes. Good morning, and thank you all for traveling to washington, d. C. , to participate in this counter isis daesh ministerial conference. It is encouraging to see the attendance when the forces of isis and daesh tune into their tvs and their computer monitors they will see the strength of a combined 68 nations and organizations. Together, we share a resolve to deal isis or daesh a lasting defeat. Our coalition is united in stopping an isis resurgence, halting its global ambitions and discrediting its ideological narrative and were ready to grow stronger and stay aggressive in this battle. President trump in his recent address to his joint session of congress made clear that it is the policy of the United States to demolish and destroy this barbaric terrorist organization and that is what we are going to do. Many of us here today represent countries who know isis carnage first hand. In fact, today marks one year since 32 innocent people were killed and 300 wounded in attacks in brussels. The belgian foreign minister is home commemorating this day for his country but we are grateful for to have the ambassador from our ally belgium joining us today. In the same month as the attack in brussels, a child was killed and 600 iraqis were injured in an isis chemical weapons attack in gaza just south of kirkuk. Isis has carried out horrific attacks in the streets of paris and istanbul each planned from its headquarters in raqqah. The United States has also experienced attacks inspired by isil on social media, a phenomenon which we are working to combat together which will be a point of discussion today. As we commemorate and mourn for the victims of isis hatred, let us also honor them with unwavering dedication to victory. The great commonality among we who have gathered today is a commitment to bringing down a global force of evil, and i emphasize the word commitment. The success of our mission depends on the effort to defeat this terrorist organization. In the run up to this meeting we have 2 billion in humanitarian, stabilization and demining needs for liberated areas in iraq and syria for 2017. I am pleased to announced that we have surpassed that total in dollar pledges. Lets fulfill our pledges so we can quickly disperse the funds we need to carry out operations for the rest of the year. Reflecting on the past year or so, we should be encouraged by the significant progress we as a coalition are making. In addition to the latest meaningful financial contributions, the flow of foreign terrorist fighters into syria and iraq is down 90 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. Turkey has pushed isis off the turkeysyria border through operation euphrates shield. This entire border is now inaccessible to isis and we will ensure that it stays that way. Near all of Abu Bakr Al Baghdadis deputies are now dead including the mastermind behind the attacks in brussels, paris and elsewhere. It is only a matter of time before baghdadi himself meets this same fate. The Libyan Government of National Accord aligned fighters from misrata routed isis from outside of iraq and syria. We are pleased to have representatives of the Libyan Government here with us today. In iraq and syria, our partners on the ground have liberated 50,000 square kilometers of territory from isis freeing nearly 2. 5 Million People in cities, villages and towns. Most importantly, the liberation of all of this territory has held. Isis has recovered none of it. 17 Coalition Members are producing content in five languages to counteract isis propaganda and its attack on its online presence. These efforts have yielded a 75 reduction of isis content on the internet in one year and the takedown of 475,000 isislinked twitter accounts. In iraq, more than 1. 5 million iraqis have returned to their homes in areas that had been under control of isis. The displacement flow outward has been reversed and this is a trend we must ensure continues. In neighboring countries closest to the conflict like jordan, turkey and lebanon have undertaken a widespread humanitarian response to the regional refugee crisis including the acceptance of millions of refugees, many of whom they are working to reintegrate into normal life and their own nations. We especially should recognize the republic of iraq. Prime minister abadi who is with me on stage has shown commitment and courage often visiting the front lines to encourage his troops and ensure that people are being cared for after the battles. His desire for stability and Inclusive Governance drives his vision for the future of iraq. The ongoing iraqiled retaking of mosul is pushing isis out of a key stronghold and liberating more than a million civilians. Iraqi forces, many trained by our coalition are performing heroically and placing protection of civilians at the forefront of their military plan. This Mosul Campaign could not have succeeded without the cooperation between the Iraqi Security forces and the kurdish peshmerga. I am pleased to see a representative from Kurdistan Regional government with Prime Minister abadi. It is this close cooperation between the iraqi people and their leaders that hastens isis ultimate defeat and ensures it can never return to iraq. Hardfought victories in iraq and syria have swung the momentum in our coalitions favor, but we must increase the intensity of our efforts and solidify our gains in the next phase of the counter isis fight. Degradation of isis is not the end goal. We must defeat isis. I recognize there are many pressing challenges in the middle east, but defeating isis is the United States number one goal in the region. As we said before, when everything is a priority nothing is a priority. We must continue to keep our focus on the most urgent matter at hand. At this moment we are still in a phase characterized by Major Military operations, the expansion of isis has necessitated a largescale military response and our offensive measures are reclaiming areas in iraq and syria in which isis has had a large and destructive footprint. Our end goal in this phase is the regional elimination of isis through military force. The military power of the coalition will remain where this fraudulent caliphate has existed in order to set the conditions for a full recovery from the tyranny of isis. Under president trumps leadership and with the strength of this historic coalition, our common enemy will remain under intense pressure. Soon, our efforts in iraq and syria will enter a new phase defined by transition from Major Military operations to stabilization. In this transition to the stabilization phase, our coalition will continue to clear landmines and return water and electricity, the basic elements that permit people to return to their homes. We will pursue regional Diplomatic Solutions for the underlying political and sectarian disputes that helped isis to flourish. The coalition and future partners will continue to provide assistance to affected communities as necessary. We appreciate the work of the u. N. Managed funding facility for immediate stabilization which has helped iraq return home over half a million displaced persons in Anbar Province alone. Continuing coalition of sport for Police Training will be essential as will be Coalition Support for demining and clearing hazardous materials. We will continue to facilitate the return of people to their homes and work with local political leadership. They will provide stable and fair governance, rebuild infrastructure and provide the essential services. We will use our diplomatic presence on the ground to facilitate channels of dialogue between local leadership and coalition partners. These initiatives are working well in iraq and we are working to taylor a similar approach specific to the challenges in syria. While a more defined course of action in syria is still coming together, i can say the United States will increase our pressure on isis and al qaeda and well work to establish interim zones of stability through ceasefires to allow refugees to go home. As a coalition, we are not in the business of nation building or reconstruction we must ensure that our respective nations precious and limited resources are preventing the resurgence of isis and equipping the wartorn communities to take the lead and rebuilding their institutions and returning to stability. A successful stabilization period will improve daily life for millions of people. Today, in east mosul, stabilization projects are clearing rubble, clearing land mines, restoring Water Services and electricity and nearly 30,000 boys and girls are now back in school. These efforts are being led by iraqis locally in cooperation with the Central Government under the leadership of Prime Minister abadi. A successful stabilization phase will set the stage for a successful normalization phase. In the normalization phase, local leaders and local governments will take on the process of restoring their communities in the wake of isis with our support. The development of a rejuvenated Civil Society in these places will lead to a disenfranchisement of isis and the emergence of stability and peace where there was once chaos and suffering. But none of this will happen automatically. We all need to support this effort. To date, in iraq and syria, the United States provides 75 of the military resources supporting our local partners in their fight against isis for humanitarian and Stabilization Support the ratio is reversed. With the United States providing 25 and the rest of the coalition providing 75 , the United States will do its part, but the circumstances on the ground require more from all of you. I ask each country to examine how it can best support these vital stabilization efforts especially in regard to contribution to military and financial resources. As we stabilize areas encompassing isis physical caliphates in iraq and syria, we also must prevent their seeds of hatred from taking root elsewhere. Loss of territory in iraq and syria has forced isis to extend its current branches and build new bases of operation in countries around the world. Already we are seeing isislinked cells from the pacific rim to central asia to south america. Just this month dozens of people were killed and wounded when members of isis disguised as doctors attacked a hospital in kabul, afghanistan. We know military strength will stop isis on the battlefield, but it is the combined strength of our coalition that will be the final blow to isis. In order to stay ahead of a global outbreak we must all adopt the following countermeasures. First, continue to persist within county counterterrorism and Law Enforcement operations. All of us must maintain pressure on isis networks within our own countries and take decisive Law Enforcement action to stop its growth. Isis is connected across every continent and we must work to break every link in its chain. Interpol is the newest member of our coalition and is critical to closing all routes through which isis terrorists seek to travel and threaten our homelands. Second, we need greater intelligence and information sharing within our own Domestic Intelligence agencies and among our nations. Our information sharing as a coalition has prevented a number of attacks and this must expand and accelerate regardless of departmental or international rivalries. One example of this is west african nations who have put aside National Differences to combat boko haram. Let us build on this good example. We also must look this enemys ideology in the eyes for what it is, a warped interpretation of islam that threatens all of our people. As his majesty King Abdullah ii of jordan has recently said, and i quote, everything they are, everything they do is a blatant violation of my faith, end quote. Isis fighters are not all from poor or impoverished communities. Many come from middle class or even upperclass background drawn to a radical and false utopian vision that purports to be based on the quran. Muslim partners and leaders of their faith must combat this perverse ideological message and we are grateful that so many have and are ready to take up this responsibility. Lastly, in tandem with our aggressive pushback on the ground in multiple countries, we must break isis ability to spread its message and recruit new followers online. A digital caliphate must not flourish in the place of a physical one. As we have seen in attacks in nice, berlin, san bernardino, the internet is isis best weapon for turning a recruit into a selfradicalized attacker. As traveling to iraq and syria as a fighter has become more difficult, isis new call has become, and i quote, stay where you are, wage war in daeshs name wherever you live. Isis handlers around the world spend their days at keyboard communicating with a wouldbe terrorist methodically feeding a recrews desire to carry out attacks in their own countries. We are making progress, but we need to do more to attack this threat. Our coalitions 24 7 counter messaging hubs in the uae, and uk and malaysia are having an impact and these types of efforts should be replicated and expanded elsewhere. Counter messaging efforts should continue both in the online arena and on the ground in countries where religious lead verse opportunities to speak out against radicalization. Our muslim partners, particularly saudi arabia and egypt have important roles to play in combatting the message of isis and other radical islamic terrorist groups. We all should deepen cooperation with the Tech Industry to prevent encrypted technologies to serve as a tool that enable extremist organization. We need the global Tech Industry to develop new advancements in the fight and we thank those companies which are already responding to this challenge. We must capitalize on the extraordinary advancements in Data Analytics and algorithmic technologies to build tools to discover isiss propaganda and identify imminent attacks. Researchers in the United States are already developing tools for sweeping the dark corners of the internet for isis material, but they need help to get to their destination even faster. Later on we will hear at lunch from ali jabbar who will speak in great detail on how to achieve victory in this arena, but let me be clear, we must fight isis online as aggressively as we would on the ground. In closing, isis presents an ongoing challenge to our collective security. But as we have seen, it is not more powerful than we are when we stand together. We must thwart isis as it tries to maintain a presence on the ground and in cyberspace. We must enhance cooperation and border security, aviation security, Law Enforcement, financial sanctions, counter messaging and intelligence sharing. And we must keep making the investment in liberated areas in iraq and syria to help innocent people rebuild and stabilize their communities. Right now this means continuing to clear explosives, restore water and power and deliver humanitarian and resettlement assistance and for its partnerships when reject extremism. Our time today is an opportunity for the open and Honest Exchange of information and encouragement, as allies dedicated to defeating a common enemy we should strive to understand and respect each others perspectives and achieve our mission. Most of all, now is the time to strengthen our shared commitment to security and invest in a fight in which we all have a stake. Thank you very much. [ applause ] as i mentioned in my remarks our next speaker is a leader who has been a courageous ally in this fight. His army has shown bravery and persistence against a fierce enemy, and we admire his people who though they have suffered were resolute in their commitment to throw off tyranny. Please join me in welcoming Prime Minister abadi of iraq. [ applause ] translator in the name of god most compassionate and most merciful, secretary tillerson, your excellencies, heads of delegations, ladies and gentlemen, peace of god be upon you. Since our previous meeting for the Global Coalition in this coalition against daesh, we have achieved many great victories. We were able to achieve all these victories by cooperating together and the brave fighting of the iraqis on the ground, fighting that went from the south of baghdad to its western part and today were fighting with bravery in mosul. Before coming to this meeting in washington i was in mosul and visited the front lines and found the arab fighting side by side with the kurd and the christian with the muslim and with the yazidi and the turks. All of them believe steadfastly in the unity of iraq and the common determination and destiny for all against an enemy that wanted to break us apart and kill the minorities among us and to exclude a large part of the Iraqi Society and communities and drive them out of their cities. Our common and onefront response is an indicator of the failure of the efforts of daesh. We are now undertaking all of the efforts to make sure they displaced are returned to their cities and villages and we are trying to stabilize the liberated areas and stabilize many of the cities and villages. Over 70 of the residents of fallujah and the city of fallujah and ramadi and more than 90 of the city of tikrit have returned to their homes thanks to the efforts of stabilization and the return of all the necessary and essential services. Ladies and gentlemen, you know the impact of the Economic Situation and the drop down of oil prices while we also fight this very ferocious fight that cost us very much, as well, despite all of that and thank to god we were able to return stability to many regions even in mosul as we fight against isis and daesh and terrorism. We are at the same time simultaneously stabilizing and we have opened 250 schools in the left side of mosul while the ongoing fight in the right side of the city. We open many hospitals, many medical centers and we have tried hard to provide services to the citizens while we fight at the same time and fight the enemies while also the enemies try to provide otherwise. This is the iraq vet that is we are trying to do and we are very proud of our diversity in our unified country. And we are united within the boundaries of our country. Today, as we fight isis in the final stages militarily in iraq and we have given them very harsh blows to this enemy, we thought also the slogan of isis as they pretend to build an empire and pretend to expand this empire. We prove that this empire that tray tried to build is today very much under and we are trying to liberate muslims. We sent a very strong message to the young that daesh try to appeal to. We see many daesh members we killed and many of those who try to get recruited with isis. We are on the decrease. We broke many of their dreams today. For that reason, daesh is resorting to many terrorist attacks in afghanistan, pakistan, iraq and many other places in europe in order to send a message that they are Still Standing and they want those young people to go and fight. Today, our fight on and against daesh is a major victory. Today we are in the stage of completely decimating daesh and not containing it. We are not containing it. Containing daesh is a very dangerous matter. We can no go there. This is a terrorist group. It cannot be trusted. We cannot team with it. Its organizing, killing, and chaos and destruction. Very corrupted ideology that is no humanity to isis and today trying to suppress the human being in the modern world. They are trying to sell women, sell children. This is a very heinous crime that they do sell women and children in iraq and syria. This terrorist group must be decimated and must be completely killed and what we have achieved in iraq is that we can forever destroy and decimate this terrorist group by unifying our efforts and remaining focused on destroying and decimating daesh and not to be distracted by regional differences and regional conflicts. In iraq, as we decentralize and since 2 1 2 years after our government has come to a close, we have made many efforts to provide many powers to the very stubborn. We have a local counsel in every government and we have a governor who was elected. We deal with the local governments as local governments. The centralization strengthens iraq. And we provide more powers. We are committed to that. We can not ever go back on that. Just as we launched our major project to stabilize to return major essential services through the liberation and through also having major committees in each government that work with the governors to implement these projects. Through this great cooperation, we were able to succeed in seeing a lot of displaced returned to their homes. Today, we have a strong Economic Activity in this liberated cities because the citizens are able to today, to resume their normal lives, their economic life, and support the local economy. Over the past 2 1 2 years, despite the terrorism of daesh and isis, iraq was able to incrise its oil production. Today, iraq can provide over 5 Million Barrels a day despite the harshness of the world and the destruction of the world we were still able to progress and to provide essential services to the citizens. In iraq, for the past 20 years, we have daily, daily, demonstrations by the citizens that are calling for their rights and expressing their views and we respect that. We respect democracy in iraq. Democracy in iraq respects the will of the people and our Security Forces provide protection to these citizens who are expressing their views freely as long as they are doing it within the boundaries of the law and not attacking Peoples Properties and so forth. This is a great progress in a country that had seen sufferings and oppression. If someone expressed his views, he was killed in the past. Today we have done Great Strides in that field and we provide such freedom to other regions. We will be victorious over isis with our democracy and freedom and diversity. Daesh hates diversity and kills those who are opposed to their views. Today, we demonstrate to others that we remain united despite the divergent perspectives. In iraq and iraq has always seen such diversity and lived for centuries with such diversity. I will also say that the structure in sameh and the tower can be made resistant and with daesh was destroyed. That shows the extent of the destruction that these terrorist groups have had on our historic monuments. I hope we will agree on a common definition that this is a terrorist group and other similar groups are terrorist groups. It does not sound incorrect that we call daesh a terrorist group when it is working against me and then i dont choose how it is going to conduct its terrorist activities in other countries. We have to be unified the threat of isis is a threat to the entire region. If we are to be very lenient towards it, we must destroy this threat, and in this scope, we must destroy isis. If we continuously cooperation and i call on everyone in this group to continue the cooperation to decimate daesh and not contain it. We are able to kill daesh and destroy it in this final stage. Also, as we fight this war, we started a program of reform in iraq to simplify all procedures in iraq. Also, fighting corruption. The citizens have every right to know where the will of the people is going. The oil of the iraqi people and the rest of the iraqis is for the iraqis. Not for other places, not for other regions or other countries. This is for all iraqis for their affiliations and their beliefs. We all believe that terrorism is a plague, dangerous as corruption and corruption is as dangerous as terrorism. Because it leads to very dangerous consequences. The collapse of some Iraqi Army Units and some other forces when daesh comes in is due to corruption. The soldier cannot fight if he sees his officer and his superior is corrupt and cannot work with devotion if he sees that his superior is corrupt. And i know this is a very difficult issue and i know there are many opposing our reforms in that regards. This is an institution of corruption as well and has been festering for a long time. However, we are determined to rid iraq of this evil. Corruption and terrorism are a common plague and we are cooperating to fight against the goal of the terrorist who try to use corruption to further their goals. We are determined to fight isis. That is an iraqi today force fighting the counterterrorism unit of the iraqi army and the peshmerga are for the first time fighting side by side. Today iraqis are fighting side by side with the peshmergas. This is not a matter of interests. It is the relationship between the iraqi army and the peshmerga has been sound and excellent and there is a great deal of cooperation and understanding against a very much an affirm that the iraqi army today has earned the respect of the iraqi citizens. We work for all the iraqis and this is our direction as well for our security internal forces and to our military forces and to all the other units that their goals is to protect the iraqi citizen and not to oppress the citizen. Providing security for the citizens, protecting the citizen and we have accountable any violation that we can assert by law is that is voiolating the human rights and dignity of people. We have also that we hope that. Our volunteers from the iraqi people who also participated in the fight from the various group of the iraqis. Sunni, shia, yazidis, and others, all the other governates, fought with us under the iraqi forces under the umbrella of the iraqi forces to decimate daesh. Also, we had the law on the pmf based on how it was adopted by the parliament. The pmf, accordingly, is under the general command of the armed forces. That is the Prime Minister. The pmf is within the system of the iraqi government, is under the iraqi discipline and we can not consider it as a security apparatus, cannot only be involved in security because we have the elections coming up. It must not it also other political groups who hold up weapons must not also enter into the elections. We must separate the weapon from the political effort and the political track and no weapon must be outside the scope of the government. The constitution of the iraq state is very good on that. No weapon that is outside the umbrella of the government. And those are doing so against only consider them outlawed and fight them according accordingly so the pmf will bring the fighters who sacrificed themselves and fought bravely under the umbrella of the iraqi leadership and command and under iraqi law and no one can carry weapons outside that system. We are very keen on absorbing all the citizens in order to maintain the dignity of this country and destroy terrorism. This threat threatens the entire world, the entire region, just like you said, mr. Secretary. This heinous terrorism is very dangerous. This is a very dangerous group. We are talking with al qaeda and its terrorism. And the groups are still there. Now we have moved to the terrorism of isis, very dangerous terrorism. And other terrorist groups, we must combat and decimate this threat and this terror because its draining our resources, draining our efforts and draining our economic means and preventing economic progress and modernity. We must fight terror and terrorism and change our way of doing things. And our way of governing. Terrorism is exploding injustice that is happening in the region and exploiting the regional conflict that is happening in the region. When there is regional conflict there is void and there are regions that are suffering from void, terrorism will exploit it. Therefore, i call containing the regional differences and the regional conflicts. Because these are the one of the main reasons to seeing these groups rise, thats in syria and libya and other places, where these groups are rising because of all of that. We welcome all the support that is offered to iraq and thank everyone who supports the Global Coalition that supports iraq. This coalition proved that we can fight together terrorism. We all have common interests. Iraq is not begging for support and is not asking for support from a position of weakness. But we all are asking it all together all in the same boat all on the same ship facing this terrorism. And we fight side by side on the ground and we benefit from all the Logistical Support and all the air support that is being given to us and to our forces as we move forward to the next phase to protect our borders and rebuild our country. We have the means to deal with that. We have absorbed and are working with all the components of iraq. I cant tell you we resolved all our issues. These problems go back to many years in the past when saddam and the bathe regime oppressed the iraqi people and disturbed the means of iraqi people and the heinous terrorist attacks who came from countries from all over the world. We have to cooperate to contain and destroy the terrorism and terrorists and prevent them from expanding their efforts and not containing isis but destroy and decimate daesh. Thank you, praise of god be upon you all, thank you for listening. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies. And is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. In the morning the Senate Judiciary committee holds a hearing on Sexual Assault against young athletes. We will hear from a former gymnast and a representative from the u. S. Olympic committee. And in the afternoon the house wayis and Means Committee looks at president trumps tax returns and other information from 2006 to 2015. Thats live at 4 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan3 as well. You can watch both online at www. Cspan. Org or listen on the free cspan radio app. Senator tom carper, the Ranking Member of the environment and Public Works Committee and representative bill shuster, chair of the house transportation and Infrastructure Committee talked about the challenges facing the u. S. Infrastructure system at the association of american highway and transportation. From washington d. C. This is about 30 minutes. All right. Because of precious time and a busy schedules im going to introduce our first speaker. Senator tom carper is the Ranking Member of the public
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