In Rome and Geneva, the mission is the same: how to stop Islamic State

Nearly two dozen nations gather today to plot their fight against the Islamic State militant group in Syria and Iraq and how to choke off its rise in Libya. The meeting in Rome takes place as talks have begun in Geneva to try to end the five-year Syrian civil war, which has killed at least 250,000 people, driven more than 10 million from their homes and drawn in the United States and Russia on opposite sides. Twenty-three nations from the wider Global Coalition to Counter ISIL will review their efforts to regain Syrian and Iraqi territory from the jihadist group and to discuss ways to curb its wider influence, notably in Libya, officials said.

When I meet the Syrian people they tell me don’t just have a conference, have also something that we can see and touch while you are meeting in Geneva.

UN envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura

U.S. officials said the Pentagon’s fiscal year 2017 budget will call for more than $7 billion to fight Islamic State, up roughly a third from the previous year’s request to Congress. Tuesday’s meeting will cover stabilizing areas such as the Iraqi city of Tikrit, which has been wrested from the group, as well as broader efforts to undercut its finances, stem the flow of foreign fighters and counter its messaging, officials said. Meanwhile, the UN envoy for Syria was set Tuesday to press President Bashar al-Assad’s regime to ease the suffering of ordinary Syrians after declaring the official start of indirect peace talks with the opposition in Geneva. In an apparent gesture of goodwill for the talks, Syria’s government agreed on Monday “in principle” to allow aid into three besieged towns in Syria, including starvation-struck Madaya, the UN said.

Islamic State