Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, on Thursday led the delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia taking part in the meeting of the international coalition countries to counter ISIL (Da'esh), at the headquarters of NATO in the Belgian capital Brussels. At the end of the meeting, a joint statement was issued as follows: This statement was released by the defense ministers of Belgium, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States following a Counter-ISIL Defense Ministerial meeting hosted by the United States in Brussels. They were joined by senior representatives from the three countries who provide or intend to provide forces or other support to the campaign, Australia, the Czech Republic and Singapore. Today in Brussels, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter hosted a meeting of Defense Ministers from countries contributing troops to the Global Coalition to Counter-ISIL/Da'esh to discuss the military campaign plan, to take stock of recent efforts to accelerate the counter-ISIL/Da'esh operation in Iraq and Syria, to consider a shared approach against ISIL/Da'esh's global ambitions, and to ensure the protection of our citizens. We paid tribute to the efforts of all Iraqi Security Forces, including the Peshmerga and Sunni tribal forces, and moderate Syrian opposition who are fighting ISIL/Da'esh and have caused numerous tactical defeats of ISIL/Da'esh in recent months, and we acknowledged the Coalition Force Commander's assessment that these successes mark the transition of the Counter-ISIL/Da'esh campaign. However, we also acknowledged that significant work remains to be done to ensure the lasting defeat of ISIL/Da'esh and the restoration of stability in Iraq and Syria. We called on those states playing a counterproductive role in the fight against ISIL/Da'esh and the Syrian peace process to play a more constructive role. --More
