Blinken to Meet with Pope, Discuss Defeating IS with Allies | Voice of America

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Pope Francis and other officials in the Vatican on Monday to discuss the topics of climate change, human rights and human trafficking.

The visit comes ahead of an expected meeting between the Pope and United States President Joe Biden, the second Catholic to lead the United States.

Also on Monday, Blinken and Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio are chairing a meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, at which Foreign Ministry officials said the ministers will discuss keeping up pressure on the militant group in Iraq and Syria while continuing to do so work affiliates elsewhere in the world.

Patrick Worman, acting director of the US Office of the Special Envoy to Defeat ISIS, told reporters that a particular focus of the meeting will be on “new challenges for ISIS in Africa,” particularly in West Africa and the Sahel.

The United States launched an 83-member coalition effort aimed at defeating the Islamic State group in 2014 after militants took control of a large area in northern Syria and Iraq, and declared in 2019 that the militants displaced from their last remaining territory.

“ISIS remains a determined enemy,” Worman told reporters. “There is still a lot to be done in Iraq and Syria, where ISIS continues to carry out attacks and stir up fear among the local population.”

Worman said the coalition is working with the Iraqi government, including assisting Iraqi security forces, to “target remaining ISIS cells, deny ISIS sanctuary and eliminate ISIS media, financial and intermediary networks”.

Worman also stressed the need to help victims of ISIS atrocities, hold those who committed crimes accountable and focus on humanitarian efforts.

Another meeting on Monday will focus specifically on Syria, where Blinken, De Maio and other ministers will focus on renewing efforts to end the decades-long conflict in Syria, along with issues related to the Islamic State group.

Humanitarian access, particularly the United Nations’ ability to provide cross-border aid, will be one of the issues Blinken highlights, the State Department said.

He is also expected to discuss US support for an immediate ceasefire in Syria.

“Stability in Syria and the Greater Region can only be achieved through a political process that represents the will of all Syrians,” Acting Deputy Secretary of the Middle Eastern Affairs Bureau, Joey Hood, told reporters. “We seek to work with allies, partners and the United Nations to ensure that a lasting political solution remains within reach.”

Efforts to resolve the Syrian conflict through a combination of cessation of fighting and implementation of a political roadmap approved by the UN Security Council have made little progress in recent years.

Hood said the international community “needs to renew its common determination to uphold the protection, dignity and human rights of the Syrian people”.

Blinken is on a multi-nation tour of Europe that will take him to a meeting of G-20 foreign ministers in Matera, Italy on Tuesday. On the agenda of these talks are the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis and an equitable economic recovery.