Washington, DC - Today, Special Presidential Envoy General John Allen and Deputy Special Presidential Envoy Brett McGurk participated in a meeting of the Small Group of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL in Jordan. The Small Group met at the Political Director level to review Coalition operations and progress along the various lines of effort to degrade and defeat ISIL.  

The leadership of the Coalition Working Groups gave briefings on their respective activities to date and discussed priorities for their efforts in the coming months. This meeting of the Coalition Small Group marked the first Coalition meeting since Working Groups were established in February 2015.

Working Group co-leads represented at the meeting were:

Military Efforts: Iraq and the United States

Stopping the Flow of Foreign Terrorist Fighters: Turkey and the Netherlands

Counter-Finance: Italy, Saudi Arabia, and the United States

Stabilization Support: Germany and the United Arab Emirates

Counter-Messaging: United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States

The Small Group also discussed Coalition understandings of potential ISIL affiliates and expansions outside of Iraq and Syria, noting the importance of distinguishing between ISIL command and control and local or isolated terrorist groups seeking to affiliate themselves with ISIL branding.

The Small Group affirmed support for a Coalition meeting at the Ministerial level later this spring.