BRUSSELS, Belgium - US Secretary of State John Kerry welcomed the recent oil and budget agreement between Baghdad and Erbil that ended a long-lasting political deadlock in the country.

Speaking in Brussels at the first meeting of ministers from more than 60 countries and factions involved in the campaign against the Islamic State, Kerry said the operations have resulted in ISIS losing ground in Iraq and Syria.

He said this week’s agreement between the Baghdad government and the semiautonomous Kurds in the north to share oil revenues was a “significant achievement.”

“This is a great step towards confronting the Islamic State and is a great achievement for Iraq,” Kerry said.

“As everybody knows who has been involved with Iraq for years now, that has been a long sought goal and it’s a very significant achievement among many,” he said.

Wednesday’s meeting, hosted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, brings together foreign ministers of the international coalition against ISIS.

International efforts to defeat the extremist militants have already destroyed the group’s operations in Syria and Iraq, Kerry said, as he vowed the campaign would continue “for as long as it takes.”

Rudaw