ROME
Italy's foreign minister confirmed his support on Tuesday for the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government and the central Iraqi government in their fight against Daesh (the Arabic acronym for ISIL).
"The situation in the region is still complicated despite the significant achievements of the peshmarga forces," Paolo Gentiloni said in Rome during a joint press conference with Necirvan Barzani, the PM of Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government.
More than two million people have been internally displaced in Iraq due to Daesh’s terror and 1.5 million of them live in the Iraqi KRG, the Italian minister said.
Gentiloni added that Italy carried out an assistance program valued at about €12 million for those refugees.
"This war that we are fighting does not just concern the Kurdish people, but all countries and humanity," Barzani said during the same press conference.
Barzani also thanked Italian PM Matteo Renzi for his visit to the region, which took place on Monday.
Renzi had pledged further Italian military and humanitarian aid to the Kurdish Regional Government.
Iraq has been gripped by a security vacuum since June 2014 when Daesh militants stormed the northern province of Mosul and declared a self-styled caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria.
