European leaders expressed scepticism Monday about their willingness to cooperate with a request by President Trump to bring home citizens who went to fight with the Islamic State, underlining a security dilemma as the US military prepares to pull out of Syria following the collapse of the caliphate.
Many European nations have been content to leave citizens who may sympathise with the Islamic State in Syria, gambling that their societies will be safer if radicalised citizens are kept far from their borders. But the Kurdish fighters who have kept many of the former caliphate residents under lock and key worry that with the US pullout, they may need to shift resources elsewhere, disbanding camps and allowing the residents to disburse.
Trump over the weekend threatened EU allies on Twitter that if they did not repatriate their citizens, the United States would simply let them go, warning that Europe could face a surge in terrorist attacks as a result.
But his tactic sparked anger at a Monday gathering of EU foreign ministers, where leaders said that they would make no plans under threat from Washington and that counterterrorism policy shouldn't be made by tweet.
"It is surely not as easy as imagined in America," said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who said Germany is discussing the issue with France, Britain and other European countries. The US request is "difficult to implement" right now, he said, because Germany cannot yet guarantee that all returning fighters would be taken into custody immediately while cases were prepared against them.