President of Kurdistan Region thanks Germany for continued support for Peshmerga
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The President of the Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, discussed the latest security and political developments in Iraq and in the region with a delegation of German parliamentarians on Monday.
The German delegation included Jürgen Hardt of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Markus Grübel, also of the CDU, who is currently Germany’s Commissioner for Global Freedom of Religion. Barbara Wolf, German Consul General in Erbil, also attended the meeting.
President Barzani extended the Kurdistan Region’s deep appreciation to Germany for its long-standing support to the Kurdistan Region, and, particularly, for Germany’s ongoing efforts to train the Peshmerga forces.
Germany recently resumed its work with the Peshmerga, following a brief suspension of that activity, after the US assassination of Qassim Soleimani, head of Iran’s paramilitary Quds Force.
The German delegation thanked the people and government of the Kurdistan Region for providing shelter and haven for the large number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from other areas of Iraq and of refugees, largely from Syria, whom the Kurdistan Region now hosts.
Over one million IDPS and refugees remain in the Kurdistan Region, with new refugees arriving daily from Syria. Meeting their basic needs is a significant burden on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), as it requires some $1 billion a year.
Both Hardt and Grübel affirmed that Germany would continue to support the KRG in its humanitarian efforts and in the ongoing fight against the so-called Islamic State.
The threat of the re-emergence of the terrorist group in Iraq and the general political and security situation in the country was also discussed. The German delegation stressed the importance of maintaining the presence of the international Coalition in Iraq to counter the threat posed by the Islamic State there and elsewhere in the region.
Earlier this month, the German Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, visited Jordan, which serves as Germany’s base for coordinating its Middle East operations and where German troops are also based.
READ MORE: Germany: Coalition withdrawal from Iraq will only strengthen ISIS
A “troop withdrawal from Iraq will make it a fertile ground for terrorism and attacks will hit the region and Europe,” Haas stated at a press conference in Amman.
Arguing that progress in the fight against the Islamic State needs to be preserved, Maas affirmed that “it is important to continue with our duties, as the International Coalition in Iraq and the area.”
Germany’s current Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer visited the Kurdistan Region in August and pledged continued support to the Peshmerga and to the Region more broadly.
READ MORE: German defense minister reaffirms country's support in visit to Kurdistan Region
Germany’s previous Defense Minister, Ursula von der Leyen, who held the post until July of last year, made repeated visits to Erbil.
Von der Leyen is now President of the European Commission. Just before assuming that new role, she told journalists that she knows the “Kurdish people very well due to my previous work in Iraq.”
READ MORE: New EU Commission president says she has ‘enormous respect for the Kurds’
“We saw the attempted genocide against the Yezidis, and I noted how courageous the Kurds fought against ISIS,” she added. “Not just in their homeland, but also with our support. I have so much respect for the way they cared for and protected the many refugees in northern Iraq.”
Editing by Laurie Mylroie