JORDAN, AMMAN – On February 11, the Counter ISIS Finance Group (CIFG) convened its 49 member states and observers to discuss the future of ISIS financing. The CIFG, which the United States, Italy, and Saudi Arabia co-chair, was established in January 2015 as one of the five working groups within the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS, a broad international group formed to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIS. This meeting marks the three-year anniversary of the creation of the CIFG and the ninth meeting of this group.
Below is a joint statement that can be attributed to leaders of the Counter ISIS Finance Group:
"Our coalition continues to make great progress in the ongoing fight against ISIS, as we identify next steps in this joint campaign to financially isolate ISIS and eliminate its sources of revenue. Although the coalition has successfully retaken over 98 percent of the territory ISIS once controlled in Iraq and Syria, the fight is not over. ISIS's revenues have significantly declined, but so have its expenses, making the work of the CIFG more important than ever.
"Our finance working group is focused on improving the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS's collective understanding of this terror group's changing tactics and financial activities in the wake of losing its so-called caliphate. CIFG members exchanged information and shared national strategies to identify and disrupt ISIS financial facilitation networks within member's domestic jurisdictions and around the world. The discussions focused on ISIS's branches, which play a key role in ISIS's new strategy to attempt to demonstrate global reach and project strength, even as our collective efforts disrupt their malign activities. The working group also highlighted the importance of collaboration between members in the form of technical assistance and dissemination of best practices. The coalition addressed ISIS's global procurement networks, and resolved to engage domestic private sectors in strategies to combat the emerging risk. The working group separately discussed stabilization challenges, including the risk of ISIS exploiting the influx of reconstruction assistance funds into Iraq and Syria.
"Our coalition must remain vigilant within our domestic jurisdictions as we engage global partners to deprive ISIS of its sources of revenue and prevent it from accessing the international financial system. The work of the CIFG is critical to the global fight to defeat ISIS in all corners of the world."
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