MOSCOW, September 13. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia is studying France’s proposal to host an international conference on Iraq and considers it a timely step, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will attend the conference to be held in Paris on September 15.
Attending the forum will also be the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, Iraq and its neighbours, as well as several other countries of the region, the United Nations and the League of Arab States, the ministry said.
The conference is called upon to “lay the groundwork for a broad consensus so that the international community could jointly provide assistance to the people and government of Iraq faced with an unprecedented security challenge from the radicals of the so-called Islamic State”.
“Well trained, armed and funded militants control a number of regions in Iraq where they are committing heinous crimes against civilians, ethnic and religious minorities. They are creating their own system of administrative bodies and organising everyday life by medieval canons,” the ministry said.
It expressed hope that “the participants in the Paris conference will be able to work out effective formulas that will not only stop the spread of the ‘Islamic State’s’ influence but also identify concrete ways to help Baghdad in its struggle against terrorism and solve social, humanitarian and economic problems created by this crisis,” the ministry said.
It noted that “faced with the large-scale threat from the ‘Islamic State’, the leadership of Iraq has been able to overcome internal contradictions and stand together, which is critical for defeating the terrorists”.
The ministry said Russia “is determined to continue to provide all possible support to the Iraqi partners not only in fighting extremists but also in restoring and developing the Iraqi economy”.
It said the “root cause of the problems created the expansion of terrorism lie in Syria. This is where the terrorists came from and this is where they created their gangs and acquired necessary combat experience”.
Conditions for the emergence of the “Islamic State” were created by the armed conflict raging in Syria for the fourth consecutive year, and the inability of the international community, and reluctance of certain countries, to look for acceptable political solutions, the ministry said.
It expressed hope that “the Paris ministerial conference will prove a useful forum for a thoughtful and interested exchange of opinions on the Iraqi, Syrian and regional issues”.