Berlin to send aid to Iraq army
August 12, 2014
Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has announced that Germany will support Iraq's army in its efforts to fight the "Islamic State" (IS) terror group by delivering nonlethal military aid such as armored vehicles, helmets, night-vision equipment, booby-trap detectors and medical supplies.
The announcement came after a meeting with her British counterpart, Michael Fallon, in Berlin on Tuesday.
When asked whether Germany might deliver weapons to Iraq, von der Leyen said that only nonlethal options were on the table for now.
"If it is a question of preventing genocide, it is our duty to intensively discuss what can be done," the defense minister was quoted by the German news agency dpa as saying.
'Existential threat'
Other German officials also weighed in.
"Considering the existential threat, I am for pushing the political and legal possibilities," of getting help to Iraq, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said, as quoted by the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
In Berlin on Tuesday, Vice Chancellor and Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel said the Yazidi religion and culture were "at grave risk" and that Germany and its European partners must "talk of all forms of help," including weapons. Though he said that no lethal weapons would be delivered to Iraqi security forces for now, he did not exclude the possibility of that happening in future.
Furthermore, the vice chancellor said there were no plans for the German army to join a protection zone set up around the Yazidi people in northern Iraq, as proposed by Steinmeier. Any such zone would be policed by US or Iraqi forces, Gabriel said.
Access vital, says EU
Meanwhile, the European Commission has announced it will increase aid to Iraq to 17 million euros ($13 million) this year.
EU humanitarian aid commissioner Kristina Georgieva said it was "less a problem of money than a problem of access," referring to Iraqi minority groups besieged by jihadists in northern Iraq.
She described Iraq's many-facetted crisis as the world's most urgent problem, despite emergencies elsewhere.
Her remarks came as envoys from EU members states met in Brussels to coordinate action on Iraq, Ukraine and Gaza.
sb/mkg, ipj (dpa, AFP, AP)