Kurdistan Region urges Canada to boost aid to fight IS

Agencies, K24

CALGARY, Canada — The top foreign affairs diplomat for the Kurdistan Region of Iraq on Monday urged Canada to provide more aid in the fight against the Islamic State, particularly if the newly-elected Liberal government led by Justin Trudeau follows through on a pledge to halt airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.

Thanking Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan for the assistance that Canada has provided the peshmerga in the fight against ISIS, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government's Department of Foreign Relations, Falah Mustafa Bakir, said the KRG respects the decision of the Canadian government if it withdraws fighter jets from the region. However, he stated they would like to see more support in the form of weapons ammunition, equipment, training, and overall capacity building.

"If that (withdrawal) was a decision of the Canadian government, of course, we respect that, but at the same time we would like to ask for the expansion of other types of support so it would be compensated."

Both he and the top KRG-USA official, Bayan Sami Abdelrahman in an official visit to Canada, took part in the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada this weekend where they met with Canada's Defence Minister as well as officials of many other countries. The three-day conference discussed global security issues and officials, diplomats, military leaders, and civil society groups and was attended by 300 people from about 60 countries.

In a panel discussion, Minister Mustafa focused on the financing of terrorism and highlighted the need for international cooperation to cut off funding to terrorists and called again on the international community to help the Yezidis and other displaced people in the Kurdistan Region.

Mustafa also met with Netherlands' Defence Minister and Albania's Minister of Defence.

Last week, Prime Minister Trudeau said Canada will stick to its plan to pull six jets from bombing missions against Islamic State.

Bakir said the primary purpose of the official KRG visit was to thank Canada for its support in the fight against Islamic State, but also to highlight the struggle by the Kurdistan Region in combatting the militant group and provide for nearly 2 million refugees.

"As I said, we are grateful for Canada, for the role it has played, for the role it has provided, but I believe in order to win this war we need to get the right weapons and the right ammunition," Bakir added.

Original reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by Leslie Adler)