ERBIL
The Netherlands will train Peshmerga forces in fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, the country’s foreign minister announced on Sunday.
In a joint press conference with Kurdish regional administration’s prime minister Nechirvan Barzani in Erbil, Bert Koenders said his country would contribute in arming and training of Peshmerga forces.
Providing humanitarian aid for Syrian and Iraqi refugees in northern Iraq is also on their agenda, Koenders, a former United Nations envoy to Mali, said.
The Dutch foreign minister expressed happiness at Peshmerga’s gains against ISIL, noting that they allocated $100 million this year in combatting the terrorist group.
In his part during the conference, Barzani welcomed the Netherlands’s move to train and arm Peshmerga forces, saying: “We see it as a very important step.”
Iraq has been in a security vacuum since June, when ISIL overran Mosul and declared what it called a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria.
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