17 January 2018•Update: 17 January 2018
By Alam
ANKARA
Daesh terrorist group’s ideological threat still remains in Iraq, said Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Gen. Petr Pavel on Wednesday.
“We can say that physically ISIS [Daesh] has been defeated, but that does not mean that the ideology was defeated and that Iraq is now a safe and country,” Pavel said in a joint news conference with Supreme Allied Commander Europe Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti and Supreme Allied Commander Transformation Gen. Denis Mercier.
They were outlining the main outcomes of the first Chiefs of Defense meeting in 2018 at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Pavel noted that there was a general understanding that Iraq would need assistance “and there is also interest from Iraqi side for that assistance from both coalition and NATO.”
“So we were considering the situation, the options. And we are generally ready for providing more assistance based on requirement from the coalition and from the Iraqi government,” he said underlining the assistance will be focused on training and capability development.
He noted how the Coalition fighting Daesh in Iraq was “transitioning from combat to stabilization”.
Russia is a strategic competitor
“Consequently, we deliberated how NATO could adapt our current activity within our training and capacity building initiative in Iraq, upon request by the Iraqi authorities and taking into consideration the importance of local ownership and buy-in.”
For his part, Scaparrotti said the NATO’s contributions to the defense of Europe are “significant and appreciated”.
“A resurgence of Russia as a strategic competitor, growing unrest instability in Africa and the Middle East as well as terrorism is reshaping our strategic environment,” Scaparrotti said.
“This security environment is compounded by the rapid growth and proliferation of new technologies; technologies that can be acquired by both state and non-state actors.
He underlined that national, bilateral, and collective alliance efforts in NATO’s Command Operations must be integrated and mutually reinforced.
“This is fundamental to our success because Strategic Unity keeps us strong,” he added.
