Readout of the President's National Security Council Meeting

President Obama today convened his National Security Council to review progress in the campaign to degrade and destroy ISIL and efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people. The President's team highlighted our continued prosecution, together with our global partners, of an aggressive campaign against ISIL that includes military, intelligence, law enforcement, and diplomatic efforts. The President emphasized that preventing attacks on the United States and countering terrorist threats from ISIL and al-Qa'ida in Syria remains the top priority. He also was updated on Coalition efforts to apply simultaneous pressure against ISIL across Syria and Iraq. Additionally, the President's team apprised him of ongoing discussions with allies and partners about the violence in western Syria and the Asad regime's brutal campaign against its own people. Although the United States suspended bilateral channels with Russia in pursuit of a Cessation of Hostilities, the President directed his team to continue multilateral discussions with key nations with a vested interest in the region to encourage all sides to support a more durable and sustainable diminution of violence and, more broadly, a diplomatic resolution to the civil war.