By: Matthew Lee
WASHINGTON — The United States on Wednesday urged coalition partners to step up efforts to defeat Islamic State militants as top officials from 68 nations gathered in Washington to assess the fight to retake Iraq's second largest city and advance on the group's self-declared Syrian capital.
"I recognize there are many pressing challenges in the Middle East, but defeating ISIS is the United States' No. 1 goal in the region," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the coalition's first ministerial gathering since President Trump took office.
"As we've said before, when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. We must continue to keep our focus on the most urgent matter at hand," Tillerson said.
Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis were hosting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Ababi and foreign ministers from the coalition partners at the State Department in Washington to explore new ideas to expand the fight against ISIS in the Iraqi city of Mosul and ready the operation to push the militants from Raqqa, Syria.
They also are preparing for the group's defeat by lining up humanitarian and reconstruction assistance.
"We are at the stage of completely decimating Daesh," al-Abadi said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
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