ASIA/IRAQ - Chaldean Patriarch: the liberation of Mosul must not become the occasion to dismember the Iraqi unity

Tuesday, 11 October 2016 jihadists wars sectaniarism

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IRAQ

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Mosul (Agenzia Fides) - While there are multiplying warnings of an imminent attack to free the city of Mosul from the domain of the jihadists of the Islamic State (Daesh), Chaldean Patriarch Raphael Louis I Sako recall all Iraqis to resist the centrifugal forces, which are damaging national unity, which could erupt among the forces that make up the variegated anti-jihadist front after the self-proclaimed Islamic Caliphate defeat. In the "exceptional and difficult circumstances in which we live", while "the intransigence voices of division and dispersion reinforce" reads the statement released by the Patriarch and sent to Agenzia Fides, we should not forget that "we are a family despite the different social identities".
The situation of emergency reminds the people of Mosul and throughout the region, and first and foremost the leaders of political forces, to assume "their historical, moral and national responsibility", in order to build a proper relationship with the common homeland and with the entire international community, putting aside disputes, giving up "partisan advantages and spirit" to protect "the Iraqi national interest above all", in order to open "concrete ways for reconciliation" in communities torn by hatred and violence.
The horizon, adds the Primate of the Chaldean Church, is to "promote the rooting of democratic pluralism", the protection of civil rights and the preservation of peace, to the benefit of the peoples of the region and in the interest of the entire international community. Patriarch Sako’s appeal concludes with an invocation to God Almighty, to shorten the sufferings of the Iraqi people and preserve "the unity of our Country".
In the considerations expressed by the Chaldean Patriarch in his appeal, one perceives concern about rising political, geopolitical and sectarian disputes among the different military, national and ethno-religious actors, about the future political structure of the region of Mosul and Nineveh Province after the eventual defeat of the Caliphate (see Fides 10/10/2016). The central government of Iraq and that of the Autonomous Region of Iraqi Kurdistan are cultivating mixed projects on the future of the area, dominated by Kurds. But there are also interferences of Shiite and Sunni regional powers (Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran) and the anti-Caliphate military coalition led by the US. (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 11/10/2016)