Iraq slams Hollande's remarks about security forces 'inappropriate'

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al- Abadi on Tuesday criticized the recent remarks of the French President as inappropriate and could only serve the enemy of the extremist Islamic State (IS) militant group (ISIS), which seized large parts of the country.

A statement by Abadi's office came as a response to Francois Hollande's comments on Monday when he said the Iraqi army is riven by sectarian divisions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and Baghdad must do more to show it can fight Islamic State militants as the Kurdish Peshmerga security forces are doing.

"Such comments are not only incorrect, but also inappropriate because it only contribute in psychological war against our forces and people. It would only serve the enemy," the statement said.

The Iraqi forces have achieved great victories in different fronts with the ISIS/ISIL militants, including retrieving majority of Diyala province in the eastern part of the country, liberating Jurf al-Sakhar area in south of Baghdad and are fighting in northern of Salahudin province to free the town of Baiji in order to advance toward Iraq's second largest city of Mosul, the statement pointed out.

"The Iraqi forces enjoy high spirit and determination to liberate every inch seized by the terrorists," it said.

"All the factions of Iraqi people are represented in the Iraqi government and in the security forces, and are unified to fight the terrorism of Daash (first Arabic letters of Islamic State in Iraq and Levant ISIL, which changed later to IS) and expelled them from Iraq," the statement added

Hollande, whose country like Canada is part of the US-led air strike campaign against the IS militant group in Iraq and Syria, told a news conference in Ottawa on Monday that "these strikes won 't be enough. They have to be accompanied by movements on the ground and in Iraq it is up to the Iraqi army and the Iraqi Kurd Peshmerga to ensure the land can be taken back."

"This is what the Iraqi Peshmerga are doing and what the Iraqi armed forces aren't doing yet. We have encouraged them, as we have asked the Iraqi government, to make the broadest gathering (of forces) possible so this army can be respected enough by all communities that it is effective," Hollande said.
 Sources: Xinhua - globaltimes.cn
4/11/14
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