Brussels, 11/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - Stressing their deep concern at the deterioration of the security situation in Iraq, particularly in the Mosul region, the European Union and the League of Arab States on Wednesday 11 June spoke out “in the strongest terms” against the recent wave of terrorist attacks in Iraq, “which have caused many casualties and have led many thousands to flee their homes”.
According to the International Organisation for Migration, 500,000 people were forced to flee Mosul after hundreds of militant Islamists took control of the city (the second largest city in Iraq in terms of population, after Baghdad) and much of the province of Nineveh. In a joint statement following their ministerial meeting in Athens, the EU and the Arab League stressed that it is “imperative” that all states apply UN resolutions 1267 and 1989, imposing sanctions on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). 5,000 people have been killed since the start of the year as a result of violence in the country. Baghdad is considered the world's most dangerous city.
Europeans and Arabs call for unity
“At this difficult moment” for Iraq, the EU and the Arab League also called on “all Iraqi democratic forces to work together on the basis of the Iraqi Constitution, to overcome this challenge to the security of Iraq and to honour the will of Iraqi citizens to be governed on the basis of a democratic process, as expressed by their participation in the recent national elections”. Europeans and Arabs call on the government of Iraq and that of the region of Kurdistan to “combine their political and military forces” in order to restore security to Mosul and Nineveh (they encourage all of the democratic elements of society to support such efforts).
The EU and the Arab League also reiterated their “firm commitment” to the unity and territorial integrity of Iraq, which are “essential for stability and economic development in the country in the region”.
MEPs question claim of Islamist responsibility
In Brussels, a number of MEPs, including Struan Stevenson (ECR, UK), Alejo Vidal-Quadras (EPP, Spain), Stephen Hughes (S&D, UK) and the former MEP Paulo Casaca, meeting within a new NGO, the European Iraqi Freedom Association, called into question the official version that terrorists were behind the attack. “(The Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al) Maliki misleadingly pretends that the terrorists and ISIS have taken control of Nineveh province in order to pave the way for bombings and missile attacks”, these MEPs state in the declaration. They claim that it was “the Iraqi people and tribes (who) have taken control of Nineveh province and Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, driving out the Iraqi military and releasing hundreds of political prisoners”, “reacting to the on-going attacks and oppression” by the Maliki regime in the country. They accuse the regime of having created the situation the country is now in.
They call on the EU no longer to support the prime minister. “The EU must stop supporting the problem - Maliki. It must start to support the solution - a non-sectarian government”, Stevenson stated. Vidal Quadras said that the EU and the US must bring “peace, democracy and stability” by removing Maliki from power. “The EU must be more engaged and active”, he commented, adding that the EU could act on three fronts: diplomacy, by bringing pressure to bear on the prime minister, the financial instruments of the EU and its funds earmarked for Iraq and, lastly, human rights. “There is a lot the EU can do to help refugees from Camp Liberty, and also the other minorities”, he concluded. (CG)