Foreign Minister George Vella.Foreign Minister George Vella.

Malta agrees that Iraqi Kurds should be given weapons to be able to fight Islamic militants who are occupying the country’s northern regions.

Foreign Minister George Vella, who yesterday attended an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers, said Malta had to be “on the side of justice and peace”.

“In order for justice and peace to prevail, the barbaric acts committed by Islamic State (IS) militants had to be stopped,” Dr Vella told Times of Malta after the meeting.

In a joint communication, the foreign ministers left it up to individual states whether to arm the Kurds in northern Iraq. France has already started supplying weapons and several other EU states were tagging along.

Dr Vella said he would have even supported the original text calling for a common EU stand in favour of arming the Kurds.

“The meeting was important because there was a realisation that Islamic State’s actions in northern Iraq not only created a humanitarian problem but also constituted a security threat,” he noted.

Islamic militants overran parts of Syria and northern Iraq declaring the creation of a caliphate, referred to as IS.

The militants adopt a very strict interpretation of Islam and have tortured and executed people who do not adhere to their beliefs.

Christian and Yazidi minorities have suffered the brunt of the atrocities.

Although Malta had no direct role to play in the region, Dr Vella said the country was offering moral support to those states providing humanitarian aid to displaced people in the region and supplying arms to the Kurds. The EU ministers were “extremely concerned” at the dire humanitarian situation and the massive displacements of civilians as a result of the assaults by IS.

“The EU remains seriously concerned about the deterioration of the security situation in Iraq and condemns in the strongest terms the attacks perpetrated by ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant – the original name used by IS) and other associated armed groups,” they declared.

The EU also condemned the atrocities and human right abuses committed against targeted religious minorities and most vulnerable groups.

“Some of these acts, committed in Iraq and Syria, may constitute crimes against humanity and must be investigated swiftly so that the perpetrators are held accountable,” the foreign ministers said.

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