UK urged to provide Syrian Christians with arms

The leader of Lebanon’s Syriac Union Party, Ibrahim Murad, has urged Britain to provide arms to “Christian opposition fighters” battling the Daesh militant group in Syria.

The appeal was made at a meeting in Beirut between Murad and visiting British MP Brooks Newmark.

In a statement, Murad said he gave a thorough presentation on the “suffering of Syriac and Christian communities” in Iraq and Syria as a result of Daesh’s brutality.

He also called on the British government to provide arms to fighters affiliated with the Syriac Military Council, the armed wing of the Syrian branch of the Syriac Union Party, which is currently fighting Daesh alongside Kurdish troops, Murad added.

Newmark, according to the statement, had promised to convey the message to London.

“Daesh” is the Arabic acronym for the so-called “Islamic State of Iraq and Levant” (ISIL) militant group, which last year overran vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.

The subsequent massacres and mass deportations of local populations perpetrated by Daesh have sparked a global outcry and led to the formation of an international coalition – which includes several Arab countries – mandated with fighting the militant group.

Images by Anadolu Agency