"The fight against DAESH is a long one that must continue because DAESH is a global threat", says Pedro Morenés

"The commitment to defeat DAESH is primary, followed by a commitment to build a consolidated Iraq and an Iraq capable of guaranteeing security and prosperity for all Iraqis", said Pedro Morenés. Furthermore, he stressed that Spain is committed to its presence in Iraq, both in Bismayah and Baghdad. In Bismayah, Spain is training the brigades operating in Mosul.

The Minister for Defence also pointed out that Spain is assessing how it can transfer the training it already provides in Jordan to deal with explosive artefacts to Iraq and the Iraqi armed forces.

The President of France, François Hollande, chaired Tuesday afternoon's meeting of the Coalition against ISIL, at which the ministers discussed the need to accelerate the military campaign in Mosul. In this regard, Spanish Minister Morenés stressed that "the risk of disintegration among the various Iraqi communities" in the scenario following the battle of Mosul "is growing as the Iraqi forces continue to retake a large part of the territory lost to DAESH".

Furthermore, Pedro Morenés expressed his concern that the so-called Islamic State "is far from defeat", in spite of the progress in the military campaign on the Iraqi city of Mosul, and said that "we should be prepared to counter a more diversified DAESH spread out across the world and even on the Internet in the so-called 'cyber-caliphate'".

Spain contributes to the Global Coalition C-ISIL by training and instructing the Iraqi Security Forces, and contributing to the fight against ISIL financing, foreign terrorist fighters, counter-narrative and strategic communication.

Spanish participation

Spain's contribution to the efforts by the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL consists of 374 servicemen. Of those, 307 are on permanent deployment while 43 take part in capability enhancement tasks on a temporary basis, 11 are national military interpreters, 10 are members of the mobile training teams and four are deployed in Jordan.

The majority of this contingent - 227 servicemen - is deployed at the Bismayah training centre (led by Spain) to train units of the Iraqi Armed Forces; another 66 servicemen instruct the special operations forces in Baghdad and Taji; and another 14 servicemen work at the general headquarters in Baghdad and Kuwait to plan and lead the operations.

The Spanish contingent has so far trained six Iraqi brigades, with a total of over 6,000 servicemen, some of which have already demonstrated their effectiveness in combat. In terms of special operations, a team has been deployed to train Iraqi units on the ground taking part in the operation in Mosul.

Furthermore, as part of a NATO initiative based on developing capabilities in Iraq, Spain contributes to the training of Iraqi soldiers in Jordan to deal with improvised explosive devices. This includes participation by personnel from the allied Counter-IED Centre of Excellence based in Hoyo de Manzanares. These personnel are expected to travel to Iraq in early 2017, where they will continue their training activities.

It should be noted that, in order to strengthen the region of North Africa and the Middle East, Spain is also contributing to security and stability through participation by its Armed Forces in other allied operations, such as support for anti-missile defence in Turkey with the deployment of a 'Patriot' unit and participation in NATO early warning aircraft missions (AWACS). Furthermore, the Spanish Armed Forces are involved in the United Nations mission in Lebanon aimed at the suspension of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel, and the missions being undertaken by the European Union in Africa.