Over the past day, news agencies are reporting that France and Germany are sending aid to the Kurds in response to the growing threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The ISIS threat was described by France as “catastrophic.”
The Associated Press (AP) reported Wednesday:
It said the French president spoke with British Prime Minister David Cameron Wednesday evening and agreed on the need for an “extremely rapid response,” but didn’t clarify whether Britain outright consented to furnish weapons to the Kurds, who are trying to push back radicals of the IS group. …
The sudden announcement that arms would begin to flow within hours underlined France’s alarm at the urgency of the situation in Iraq, where the IS group fighters are threatening the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
Today Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that Germany is preparing to send aid to northern Iraq:
Four German Transall C-160 military transporters, carrying 36 tons of mostly medical and food supplies, will fly via Turkey to the Kurdish city of Arbil, reported national news agency DPA.
Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said this week that Germany may also send non-lethal military hardware such as armored vehicles, helmets, security vests and night-vision gear.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was quoted saying “the suffering of the people in northern Iraq, of the Yazidis, Christians and others, at the hands of the terror group Islamic State is appalling.”
Earlier this week American military support was credited with helping the Kurds take back some towns that had been captured by ISIS.
In Say it Again. Kurdish Independence Now that was published in the September 2013 issue of The Tower Magazine, Jonathan Spyer emphasized the role Kurds could play in stabilizing the Middle East:
Moreover, the forces ready and willing to replace the US as the region’s strategic hegemon—above all, Iran and Russia—do not intend to manage it as custodians of order and stability. … A sovereign Kurdish state could be a powerful bulwark against such disorder and a solid, pro-Western ally in this most troubled of regions.
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