Barzani: International community must provide us weapons to fight ISIS

President of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, yesterday called on the international community to supply Kurds with weapons to support them in the face of Islamic State militants who are gaining ground in northern Iraq.

In a joint news conference with the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Barzani said his people were not fighting a terrorist organisation, “we are fighting a terrorist state”.

Fabius urged Iraqi politicians to speed up the formation of the new Iraqi government.

He told reporters after meeting with Hussain Al-Shahristani, deputy prime minister for energy affairs and acting foreign minister, that, “We call for the formation of a government of national unity, in which all Iraqis would feel represented so as to participate in Iraq’s fight against terrorism.”

Adding, “We stand in solidarity and support with the Iraqi government in its fight against terrorism, and the French government has sent, with the French delegation, tonnes of medicine and humanitarian aid to the displaced people.”

The American President Barack Obama said the American air strikes “successfully destroyed weapons and equipment” belonging to militants of the Islamic State (ISIS) organisation in northern Iraq.

During a speech at the White House yesterday, he said that the United States has “stepped up” the military aid to the Kurdish army forces fighting Sunni extremists near the city of Erbil in northern Iraq.

He said that a government and army which represent the Iraqi people must be formed, stressing that the separation of governments from the people led to the growth of ISIS.