US President Donald Trump at the gathering of the G7 leaders in Biarritz, France, again pressed German Chancellor Angela Merkel to deal with Daesh fighters from Germany held captive by the US after the terror groups were curbed.
“We did a great job, and we have had very good talks. It's not fair for the United States to have these people and we want to give them to the areas where they came from. That includes not just Germany. We have a lot from France. We have a lot from [the] UK. We have a lot from a lot of different countries,” he said.
Even when the chancellor was specifically asked by a journalist about his earlier demands to take the captured jihadists and threats to release them if European nations refuse to do so, Trump took the word first and reassured that they were now discussing the issue.
“We're talking about that now. We have a lot from Germany, which is a great thing. We'll work something out. I think we're going to work something out,” the US commander-in-chief insisted, while Merkel noted that her country had already taken "a number of family members, among them primarily children back" and indicated that Berlin “wants to find a solution together' to the problem.”
Earlier in August, Trump warned that Washington is prepared to dump up to 2,500 Daesh prisoners into countries in Europe if those nations do not accept them voluntarily.
"We have 2,500 [Daesh] fighters that we want Europe to take because they were going back into Europe - into France, into Germany, into various places", Trump said, noting that the number of US captives totaled an estimated 10,000 prisoners after defeating the Daesh caliphate.
The issue of who will retain long-term custody of former Daesh fighters deemed too dangerous to be released remains unresolved between the US government and its European allies.
In February, Trump called on Europe to take back members of the Daesh terrorist group who had been captured in Syria or risk having them released. No country has yet acted on Trump's demands. European countries have been reportedly reluctant to take back people who joined the terrorists, even if they were not actively involved in military operations.
*Daesh (Islamic State, ISIL, ISIS, IS) is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and many other countries.