Egypt and the US discussed on Sunday means to limit ISIS's access to funding, as well as joint strategies to combat the "brutal" group's affiliates in North Africa, a US official has said.
Daniel Glaser, Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing in the US Department of the Treasury, met on Sunday with senior Egyptian officials in Cairo to discuss collaboration to dismantle funding networks of the militant group and curb its access to the international financial system, a statement made by the US embassy said.
“The United States, working closely with regional partners, like Egypt, is taking aggressive steps to isolate this brutal terrorist organization from the international financial system," Assistant Secretary Glaser said.
Glaser's visit to Cairo is aimed at helping "leverage Egypt’s counterterrorism strengths" and improve Egypt-US collaboration against Daesh affiliates in North Africa.
“We discussed future engagements, and we look forward to our continued partnership with Egypt as together we work to destroy ISIL," Glaser added, using a variant of the group's name.
Egypt has struggled for over two years to stamp out an Islamist insurgency in North Sinai.
The insurgency, which is spearheaded by Sinai Province, formerly known as Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis - a Daesh affiliate - has killed hundreds of security personnel in North Sinai since the 2013 ouster of President Mohamed Morsi.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian army has recently stated that after killing hundreds of suspected extremists in recent months it now controls the vast majority of the governorate.
Editor's note: This article has been edited from the source material.
