Press Release

Iraq. Missiles on Erbil military base, Un Ponte Per: 'Foreign powers and sectarian militias destabilise the country'

Rome, 16/02/2021 - The national co-presidents of the NGO Un Ponte Per (UPP) operating in Iraq for over 30 years, Alfio Nicotra and Angelica Romano, issued the following statement:

Un Ponte Per expresses its concern about the attack on the international coalition military base in Erbil, claimed by a pro-Iranian militia, which left one victim and at least 9 wounded.

We would like to recall that unfortunately Iraq and the Iraqi Kurdistan region have been destabilised in recent months by various actors: operations by foreign powers such as Turkey against the Kurds, with bombings and mass arrests also in Iraq; resurgence between US troops and pro-Iranian militias heightened after the killing on 3 January 2020 of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani at Baghdad International Airport; the resumption of initiatives by Daesh militias and several attacks against civilians such as the particularly bloody one last month in a market in the Iraqi capital.

The resurgence of these conflicts poses a threat to the civilian population and to the country's reconstruction process, and they are intended to take away the voice of the Iraqi social movements that have mobilised against sectarian drift, corruption and violent extremism over the past two years.

There is a strong fear that these actions could affect the possibility of holding free general elections, set for October 2021 and an important outcome of the civil revolution that began in October 2019.

Pope Francis' visit to Iraq, awaited not only by the Christian population but also by a large part of civil society,becomes even more important in these circumstances, as it represents an exceptional opportunity to turn the spotlight back on this country, its search for a just peace and a political balance not determined by foreign powers.