Brussels, 20/08/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 20 August, European countries continued to mobilise their support for Iraq: Germany said it was prepared to send weapons, France would like a conference on security and the Italian Prime Minister travelled to Baghdad and Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, announced that his country was ready to send weapons to the Kurds in Iraq as soon as possible. During a press conference, he explained that “We will provide military equipment…so that Kurdish security forces are able to resist attacks from the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant”. He also said that Germany would initially send humanitarian aid and non-lethal equipment, such as helmets and armoured vehicles, whilst examining the needs of the Kurds, in coordination with its European partners. Germany had until now refrained from taking this action. The German Defence Minister, Ursula von der Leyen, explained that the needs of the Kurdish forces and German resources would be analysed over the next few days and that an initial result from this analysis was expected next week.
France has already sent arms and the United Kingdom, Czech Republic and Italy were ready to do likewise. The issue of sending weapons is also expected to be discussed at the Italian parliament today, which is expected to agree on the Italian government being able to allow it to go ahead with this.
In an interview in the French newspaper, Le Monde, the French president, François Hollande, announced that he would soon be proposing (probably in September) a conference on the issue of security in Iraq and the fight against the Islamic State. He explained that “we have to work out a global strategy against this group that has been set up and which receives significant funding and sophisticated weapons, whilst threatening countries like Iraq, Syria and Lebanon”.
The Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, is expected to travel to Iraq on 20 August for a visit of several hours in Bagdad and the Kurdish city of Erbil in the north of the country, where there are many refugees. Renzi is expected to meet the new Iraqi president Fouad Massoum, the prime minister elect, Haider al-Abadi and his predecessor, Nuri al-Maliki, as well as the president of the Kurdish region, Masoud Barzani (our translation throughout). (CG)