(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) France on Monday said it stands ready to respond to a Kurdish request for weapons to fight radicals from the Islamic State for Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius urged Europe to act in favour of the Kurdish request.
Fabius, who paid a lightening visit to Baghdad and Irbil on Sunday, has sent a letter to European authorities, notably Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, to transmit the request for weapons and humanitarian assistance from Kurdish Regional President Masoud Barzani, whom he met Sunday.
France already delivered humanitarian aid to the region on Sunday and is now eager to supply the Kurdish forces with weapons to counter ISIL's advance.
"With this drama playing out on its doorstep, Europe must not remain inactive. Solidarity with the persecuted community is a moral imperative. Europe's strategic interests and the defense of liberties also demand it," Fabius wrote in reference to the ISIL persecution of minorities in northern Iraq.
Barzani "asked me to establish, on an extremely urgent basis, an air bridge to supply humanitarian relief from Europe to northern Iraq, as well as temporary construction materials to help local authorities meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of displaced persons fleeing the barbarity of Islamic State," Fabius indicated in his letter.
The Kurdish President "also stressed the pressing need for weapons and ammunition that would allow him to confront and fight the Islamic State terrorist group," the Foreign Minister added.
"It is vital for the European Union to mobilize immediately to answer this call for help. A special meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council seems advisable. France - whose first shipment of humanitarian aid I supervised yesterday - stands ready to respond," Fabius said.
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