Washington: President Donald Trump today directed US military to develop a “comprehensive strategy” within 30 days to defeat the ISIS, asserting that America must take decisive action against the dreaded terror group.
“The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, is not the only threat from radical Islamic terrorism that the US faces, but it is among the most vicious and aggressive. It is also attempting to create its own state, which ISIS claims as a ‘caliphate’. But there can be no accommodation or negotiation with it,” Trump said in his executive order.
“For those reasons I am directing my administration to develop a comprehensive plan to defeat ISIS,” he said.
The plan to be submitted to the President within 30 days calls for a comprehensive strategy to defeat the ISIS and recommend changes to any US rules of engagement and other American policy restrictions that exceed the requirements of international law regarding the use of force against the terror group.
Trump said the ISIS has engaged in a systematic campaign of persecution and extermination in those territories it enters or controls.
“If ISIS is left in power, the threat that it poses will only grow,” he warned.
“We know it has attempted to develop chemical weapons capability. It continues to radicalise our own citizens, and its attacks against our allies and partners continue to mount. The US must take decisive action to defeat ISIS,” Trump said.
The terror group is responsible for the violent murder of American citizens in the Middle East, including the beheading of James Foley, Steven Sotloff, and Peter Abdul-Rahman Kassig, as well as the death of Kayla Mueller, the executive order notes, the executive order said.
In addition, ISIS has inspired attacks in the United States, including the December 2015 attack in San Bernardino, California, and the June 2016 attack in Orlando, Florida, it said.
“ISIS is complicit in a number of terrorist attacks on our allies in which Americans have been wounded or killed, such as the November 2015 attack in Paris, France, the March 2016 attack in Brussels, Belgium, the July 2016 attack in Nice, France, and the December 2016 attack in Berlin, Germany,” said the executive order.
The plan seeks public diplomacy, information operations, and cyber strategies to isolate and delegitimise ISIS and its radical Islamist ideology; identification of new coalition partners in the fight against ISIS and policies to empower coalition partners to fight ISIS and its affiliates; and mechanisms to cut off or seize ISIS’s financial support, including financial transfers, money laundering, oil revenue, human trafficking, sales of looted art and historical artifacts, and other revenue sources.
PTI