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A30 world news
Diamars 29 Juni 2021

US warns that Islamic State extremists still a world threat

tribution of $436 million to assist dis- Moscow agreeing to the extension.
placed people in Syria and surround- Russia, however, wasn’t present at the
ing countries and called for a new meeting.
effort to repatriate — and rehabilitate
or prosecute — some 10,000 IS fight- Last week, the U.N. special envoy
ers who remain imprisoned by the for Syria, Geir Pederson, said there
Syrian Defense Forces. were worrying signs that the Islamic
State may be getting stronger in the
“This situation is simply untenable,” country and called for a boost in co-
Blinken said. “It just can’t persist in- operation to counter it. Pederson has
definitely.” However, no countries also joined calls for new international
present made any new commitment talks on ending Syria’s civil war.
to repatriating their citizens and it
was unclear if the number of detain- Since the Syrian conflict erupted in
ees could be reduced in any signifi- March 2011, numerous high-level
cant way in the near-term. gatherings aimed at ending the fight-
ing and guiding the country to a
Blinken also announced sanctions political transition have failed. The
against Ousmane Illiassou Djibo, a U.N., U.S., Russia and many other
(AP) — As the U.S. works on its foreign fighters accountable for their native of Niger, who is a key leader countries support a 2015 Security
military withdrawal from Af- actions and combat extremist mes- of the Islamic State affiliate in the Council resolution endorsing a road
ghanistan, members of the glob- saging. greater Sahara. Djibo was designated map to peace in Syria that calls for a
al coalition fighting the Islamic a global terrorist, meaning that any new constitution followed by U.N.-
State group met Monday to chart Blinken and Di Maio urged represen- of his U.S. are frozen and Americans supervised elections.
future steps against the extremist tatives of the 77 other countries and are barred from any transactions with
group. five organizations that make up the him. Blinken, who also met with Italian
coalition not to drop their guard. Prime Minister Mario Draghi and
The meeting came just a day after the “We must step up the action taken by In addition to the meeting on IS, President Sergio Mattarella on Mon-
U.S. launched airstrikes against Iran- the coalition, increasing the areas in foreign ministers of countries con- day, hailed the state of U.S.-European
backed militias near the Iraq-Syria which we can operate,” said Di Maio. cerned about the broader conflict in relations, noting that Italy, France and
border Syria met in Rome ahead of a critical Germany — the three countries he
Outside of Iraq and Syria, he said U.N. vote on whether to maintain a visited on his current European tour
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blink- there was an “alarming” surge in IS humanitarian aid corridor from Tur- — are the only members of NATO,
en and Italian Foreign Minister Luigi activity, particularly in the Sahel, Mo- key. Russia has resisted reauthorizing the Group of Seven and the Euro-
Di Maio co-chaired the gathering of zambique and the Horn of Africa. the channel amid stalled peace talks pean Union.
senior officials from the seven-year- He called for the coalition to create between the Syrian government and
old, 83-member bloc. Participants a special mechanism to deal with the rebel groups. “We share a deep commitment to
were taking stock of current efforts threat in Africa. promoting democracy and human
to ensure the complete defeat of IS, Two senior U.S. officials said Blink- rights,” he said. “We see the same big
whose remnants still pose a threat in Blinken noted that despite their de- en told the Syria conference that the challenges on the horizon. And we
Iraq and Syria and have shown signs feat, IS elements in Iraq and Syria U.S. believes the corridor must be recognize that we can’t tackle them
of surging in parts of Africa. “still aspire to conduct large-scale at- reauthorized and expanded to pre- alone.”
tacks.” vent more deaths. The officials, who
Amid significant other international spoke on condition of anonymity Blinken and Di Maio downplayed
priorities, including taming the coro- “Together, we must stay as commit- because they weren’t authorized to differences between the U.S. and
navirus pandemic and stepping up ted to our stabilization goals as we did publicly discuss the private diplomat- Italy over China, saying there was
the fight against climate change, the to our military campaign that resulted ic conversations, said Blinken made an increasing awareness of the com-
coalition is hoping to stabilize areas in victory on the battlefield,” he said. clear that any U.S.-Russia coopera- plexities and dangers of dealing with
liberated from IS, repatriate and hold Blinken announced a new U.S. con- tion on Syria would be dependent on Beijing.

Moscow court rejects appeal from imprisoned American

(AP) — A Moscow court on Monday to a police station after picking him The U.S. is holding two prisoners
rejected an imprisoned American’s up following a night of heavy drink- Reed is one of two Americans impris- whose release Russia has sought for
appeal against his nine-year sentence ing at a party. The United States has oned in Russia under controversial more than a decade, including arms
for assaulting police officers. sought his release, saying the evi- circumstances. Paul Whelan, a for- trader Viktor Bout. The other is Kon-
dence against him was weak. mer corporate security executive who stantin Yaroshenko, a pilot who was
The Moscow City Court upheld the also holds Canadian, Irish and British extradited from Liberia in 2010 and
sentence issued last year by a lower Asked about Reed in a recent in- citizenship, was arrested in Moscow convicted the next year of conspiracy
court, which convicted Trevor Reed terview with NBC News, Russian in 2018, convicted of espionage and to smuggle cocaine into the U.S.
for an altercation in August 2019 in President Vladimir Putin called him sentenced to 16 years. His lawyer
Moscow, where he was studying Rus- a “drunk and a troublemaker.” has said his client was handed a flash Sullivan returned to Moscow only
sian and visiting his girlfriend. drive that had classified information last week. He flew out in April after
Reed was diagnosed with COVID-19 on it that he didn’t know about. Russian officials suggested that he
“I regret that the appellate court has in May. Earlier this month, the U.S. should leave to mirror the departure
not corrected this gross injustice, but Embassy protested the lack of consul- U.S. President Joe Biden said Whelan of the Russian ambassador in Wash-
it does not in any way affect the se- ar access to him during his hospital- and Reed are being “wrongfully im- ington, whom Moscow recalled for
riousness with which I and the U.S. ization and said he had been repeat- prisoned” in Russia and raised their consultations after Biden described
government will continue to pursue edly denied phone calls to his family plight with Putin at their summit in Putin as a “killer” in March.
this matter for Trevor to get him re- or embassy personnel. Geneva earlier this month.
leased so that he can go home and be During the Geneva summit, Putin
with his family,” U.S. Ambassador “My colleagues and I were able to Putin had opened the door to possi- and Biden agreed to return the am-
John Sullivan told reporters outside speak with Trevor today,” Sullivan ble discussions about a prisoner swap bassadors to Washington and Mos-
the court after attending the hearing. said after the court hearing. “He is with the U.S. and said those conver- cow in a bid to improve badly dete-
doing as well as can be expected un- sations would continue. Biden said riorated diplomatic relations between
Reed was accused of assaulting po- der the circumstance. He’s a remark- he would follow up too. the countries.
lice officers who were driving him able and resilient young man.”