US, Russia look for new strategies in fight against ISIL

World Today

U.S. President Donald Trump is vowing to defeat ISIL, also known as ISIS and Daesh.

Russia and the U.S. seem poised to work together in new ways to fight terrorism.

CGTN’s Jim Spellman reports.

“We paid attention to the pre-election declarations of Donald Trump including those about readiness and determination to jointly fight Islamic State. Russia – and President (Vladimir) Putin has repeatedly said that – it is ready to walk its part of the path to move the dialogue with Washington into constructive mode in order to find effective answers to the challenges of terrorism,” Sergei Lavrov the Russian Foreign Minister said.

Both countries have been targeting ISIL with air strikes, but some U.S. politicians say defeating the militants will require beating them on the ground in Raqqa, Syria, essentially the group’s capital – with urban warfare.

Iraqi forces, operating with U.S. assistance, have made progress against the group in Mosul, but it’s not clear which ground forces might take on ISIL in neighboring Syria. Trump has not laid out a detailed plan for how the U.S. will move forward.

However, who actually does the fighting may depend on the outcome of Russian and Turkish led peace talks aimed at ending the civil war in Syria. But even a military victory on the ground that destroys ISIL’s home base in Raqqa won’t eliminate the global terrorism threat the group presents.

And finally the conditions that helped create ISIL will have to be addressed. That will mean bringing political stability and increased economic opportunities to the region.