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Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS Small Group Co-Hosted by The Kingdom of Belgium and The United States of America March 30, 2021

At the invitation of Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sophie Wilms and U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, the Foreign Ministers of the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh/ISIS Small Group met virtually today to reaffirm our shared determination to continue the fight against Daesh/ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and to create conditions for an enduring defeat of the terrorist group,which remains the Coalitions sole purpose,through a comprehensive, multifaceted effort.The Ministers emphasized the protection of civilians and affirmed that international law, including international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians, particularly children, and international human rights law, as well as relevant UN Security Council resolutions, must be upheld underallcircumstances. In this regard the Ministers emphasized the need to stop and prevent violence, and grave violations of childrens rights, and to durably improve the protection of children affected by the armed conflict, as well as to ensure womens human rights. The Ministers, recalling their statement of June 4, 2020,committedto strengthen cooperation across all Coalition lines of effort toensure that Daesh/ISIS and its affiliates are unable to reconstitute any territorial enclave or continue to threaten our homelands, people, and interests. Together they remain firmly united in their outrage at Daesh/ISISs atrocities and in their determination to eliminate this global threat.

The Ministers acknowledged that while Daesh/ISIS no longer controls territory andnearlyeight million people have been freed from its control in Iraq and Syria, the threatremains. The Ministers expressedtheir condolences andreiterated theirsupport to Iraqi authorities following the increased Daesh/ISIS activity in Iraq and Syria in recent months, including the double suicide attacks in Baghdad on January 21, and called for continued and coordinated action. This includes allocating adequate military and civilian resources to sustain Coalition and legitimate partner forces efforts against Daesh/ISIS in Iraq and Syria, including stabilization support to liberated areas, to safeguard Iraq and Syrias stability and our collective security interests. The Ministers noted the new 2021 Pledge Drive for Stabilization, reiterating the importance of collective stabilization efforts to the long-term defeat of Daesh/ISIS and the elimination of the conditions conducive to its rise.

The Ministers reiterated their unwavering commitment to continueclose cooperation with and support to the Government of Iraq. Appropriate measures to enhance the operational efficiency and coordination of our collective efforts to maintain necessary pressure on Daesh/ISIS remain essential.The Coalition operates in Iraqat the request of the Government of Iraq, in full respect ofIraqs sovereigntyand aiming at strengthening its security. Ministers recalled that attacks against Coalition forces and Iraqi partners, such as those that occurred in Erbil, Baghdad, and Al Asad, are unacceptable and compromise our collective efforts at the expense of the people of Iraq. They welcomed the decision of the February 18 NATO Defence Ministerial Meeting regarding the incremental expansion of NATOs non-combat advisory and training mission in Iraq, with the full consent of the Government of Iraq and complementing the Coalitions efforts.While the COVID-19 global crisis has had animpact on the Coalitions activities and operations, the Ministers welcomed the continued work with partner forces that mitigated the fallout of the pandemic while providing continued support to further dismantle Daesh/ISIS. The enhanced sharing of terrorist-related criminal information by Iraqi authorities, via INTERPOL channels, supported this progress within the Coalitions law enforcement line of effort.

In Syria, the Coalition stands with the Syrian people in support of a lasting political settlementin accordance withUN Security Council Resolution 2254. The Coalition must continue to be vigilant against the threat of terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, to build on the success it has achieved and continue to act together against any threats to this outcome to avoid security vacuums that Daesh/ISIS may exploit. The Ministers took note of the resumption in Daesh/ISIS activities in areas where the Coalition is not active and its ability to rebuild its networks and capabilities to target security forces and civilians.

The Ministers also welcomed the Coalition meeting held on November 10, 2020 on Daesh/ISIS threats in West Africa, noting with concern the serious and growing threat Daesh/ISIS affiliates pose across West Africa and the Sahel, as well as the emerging threat in other parts of the continent, particularly in East Africa. The Coalition reaffirmed its willingness to further explore how it can contribute to collective efforts to cope with the threat posed by Daesh/ISIS in these regions, and that such efforts be upon the request and prior consent of countries concerned, and be in close coordination with African partners and existing initiatives such as the International Coalition for the Sahel, and in full respect of international law. The Ministers noted that collecting, preserving and sharing battlefield evidence via bilateral and/or INTERPOL multilateral channels, and the need for comprehensive border security, were identified as potential areas for Global Coalition engagement in the region.

The Ministers, recognizing the challenge posed by foreign terrorist fighters who are in custody as well as family memberswho remain in Iraq and Syria, committed to pursue existing effective accountability mechanisms in close coordination with the countries of origin, including accountability for fighters who have used sexual violence as an instrument of terror. They remained committed to promoting efforts to ensure that accused terrorists, including those of foreign nationality, are treated appropriately and tried consistent withinternational lawobligations, includingapplicable fair trialguarantees, and they urged the custodians of the detained Daesh/ISIS terrorist fighters to treat them humanely at all times,in accordance with international law. The Ministers further recognizedthat the situation for Daesh/ISIS detainees and their family members in northeast Syria is of grave concern and stressed the importance of finding a comprehensive approach to this serious challenge.

The Coalition reaffirmed its belief that acomprehensive and collective effortremains necessary to achieve a full and enduring defeat of Daesh/ISIS worldwide. The Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh/ISIS has proven that it is a cohesive, adaptable and successful vehicle that will continue to sustain this important endeavor through stabilization, political, military, communications, counter finance, and law enforcement lines of effort. The Ministers also reaffirmed their intent to hold the next ministerial meeting of the Global Coalition in Italy as soon as circumstances permit.

Link:
Joint communiqu by Ministers of the Global Coalition to defeat ISIS Small Group - Iraq - ReliefWeb

BAGHDAD--While Assyrians around the world are currently preparing to celebrate their Assyrian ancestors tradition of Akitu or the Assyrian New Year, an ancient Assyrian heritage site is being bulldozed by heavy earth moving machinery.

The wall of Nineveh built during the reign of King Sennacherib (reigned 705-681 BCE) which stretches 12 km along the city of Nineveh (Mosul, Iraq) is being partially bulldozed by private contractors. Activists and locals fear the remains will be used as building materials or sold as artefacts in the black market.

But the Antiquities Commission in the Nineveh province has denied the demolition is in the vicinity of Nineveh wall saying it is actually taking place 600 metres away from the protected structure.

SBS Assyrian correspondent Naseem Sadiq from Duhok, Iraq told SBS that the wall is being knocked down to allow for road building in the city.

The land surrounding the part of the site is claimed by an Iraqi family who states the previous government of Saddam Hussain confiscated it making it government property.

Since the fall of Saddam and the old regime, the family has been fighting in courts to get the property back. Recently, the family won their appeal and the land was returned to them. However, none of these procedures was discussed publicly.

Naseem Sadiq also spoke to Dr. Audisho Malko, an Assyrian historian and president of the Assyrian Writers Association who says he is devastated by this act.

Dr. Malko explains that the partial destruction of a three-thousand-year-old structure built during the Assyrian empire is not only a loss to the Assyrians, but for the Iraqi people, Iraqs history and to the international community. The wall was initially constructed to protect the city of Nineveh from intruders and invaders.

The issue of this destruction is not over yet. So far, a number of letters objecting the spoliation has been sent to Iraqi ministries and to the Prime Minister of Iraq, Mustafa al-Khadhimi.

More:
3000 Year-old wall destroyed in Nineveh, Iraq | | AW - The Arab Weekly

Baghdad (AFP)

The death of Dhafer Eliyahu hit Iraq hard, not only because the doctor treated the neediest for free, but because with his passing, only four Jews now remain in the country.

At the Habibiya Jewish cemetery in the capital Baghdad, wedged between the Martyr Monument erected by ex-dictator Saddam Hussein and the restive Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, an aged Muslim man still tends to the graves, but visitors are rare.

The day of Eliyahu's burial, "it was me who prayed over his grave", the doctor's sister told AFP.

"There were friends" of other faiths who prayed too, each in their own way, she added, refusing to give her name.

To hear Jewish prayer out in the open is rare now in Baghdad, where there is but one synagogue that only opens occasionally and no rabbis.

But Jewish roots in Iraq go back some 2,600 years.

According to biblical tradition, they arrived in 586 BC as prisoners of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II after he destroyed Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.

In Iraq, they wrote the Babylonian Talmud on the very land where the patriarch Abraham was born and where the Garden of Eden is considered by some to have been located, in the heart of the Mesopotamian marshlands.

More than 2,500 years later, in Ottoman-ruled Baghdad, Jews were the second largest community in the city, making up 40 percent of its inhabitants.

Some were very prominent members of society like Sassoon Eskell, Iraq's first ever finance minister in 1920, who made a big impression on British adventurer and writer Gertrude Bell.

- 'Not well received' -

At the start of the last century, the day of rest and prayer was Saturday, as per the Jewish tradition, not Islam's Friday, as it is today.

Today, "one prays at home", said a Baghdad resident knowledgeable of the city's Jewish community, who also chose to remain anonymous.

And when people with a Jewish name deal with the administration "they will not be well received", he added.

According to Edwin Shuker, a Jew born in Iraq in 1955 and exiled in Britain since he was 16, "there are only four Jews with Iraqi nationality who are descendant of Jewish parents" left in the country, not including the autonomous Kurdish region.

A turning point for Jewish history in Iraq came with the first pogroms in the mid-20th century. In June 1941, the Farhud pogrom in Baghdad left more than 100 Jews dead, properties looted and homes destroyed.

In 1948, Israel was created amid a war with an Arab military coalition that included Iraq.

Almost all of Iraq's 150,000 Jews went into exile in the ensuing years.

Their identity cards were taken away and replaced by documents that made them targets wherever they showed them.

The majority preferred to sign documents saying they would "voluntarily" leave and renounce their nationality and property.

Still today, Shuker said, Iraqi law forbids the restoration of their citizenship.

By 1951, 96 percent of the community had left.

Almost all the rest follow after the public hangings of "Israeli spies" in 1969 by the Baath party, which had just come to power off the back of a coup.

"Promotion of Zionism" was punishable by death and that legislation has remained unchanged.

- 'Normal life' elsewhere -

Decades of conflict and instability -- with the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, the invasion of Kuwait, an international embargo, the 2003 American invasion and the ensuing violence -- completed the erosion of the Jewish community.

By the end of 2009, only eight members remained, according to a US diplomatic cable.

And the haemorrhage didn't end there.

A jeweller threatened by militiamen who coveted his goldsmith's work went into exile, followed by Amer Moussa Nassim, grand nephew of author and renowned economist Mir Basri, in 2011.

At 38, Nassim told AFP he left Baghdad to finally live "a normal life" and get married, as the only remaining Jewish women in the city of millions of people were two elderly ladies.

Six months ago, one of the two, known as Sitt (lady in Arabic) Marcelle, a tireless advocate of the community, passed away.

And on March 15, she was followed by Elyahu, aged 61.

Israel, on the other hand, is now home to 219,000 Jews of Iraqi origin.

They left behind in Iraq homes and synagogues, which, up until 2003, "were in perfect condition and each owner identifiable", Shuker said.

"All it takes is a vote in parliament" to return everything to the families.

But today, the buildings still stand empty, padlocked and crumbling from neglect, carrion for war profiteers in a country where corruption and mismanagement reign.

2021 AFP

Read the original:
Iraq's Jewish community dwindles to fewer than five - FRANCE 24

A BABY in Iraq is the first in the world to be born with three penises, doctors claim.

The youngster has a rare condition called triphallia, which has never been reported before.

1

Doctors in the Kurdistan Region detailed the case in the medical journal International Journal of Surgery Case Reports.

The unidentified boywas three months old when it was discovered he had three penises, MailOnline reported, and it's not clear why it hadn't been discovered at his birth.

His parents, from Duhok city, had brought him into hospital because he had swelling in his scrotum and two skin projections.

But to the doctors' shock, they discovered these protrusions were penises, 2cm and 1cm in length.

However, they did not perform like functioning organs - neither had a urethra to wee from and it is unclear from the report if they were connected to the reproductive system.

Only one of the extra penises had a head.

Doctors diagnosed supernumerary penises - an extremely rare condition first seen in 1609, in which a baby is born with more than one penis.

The condition affects one in every five to six million births and is never the same from one case to another, the report said.

Some 100 cases of babies born with two penises have been reported in medical literature, and in some cases both penises work.

Previously doctors in India claimed they had treated a two-year-old boy born with three penises and no anus, but it appears the story was never written up in a medical journal.

Sometimes it can be accompanied with other problems, such as a double bladder.

For example, one baby born with two penises in Russia also had a third leg and no anus.

The team in Iraq led by Dr Shakir Saleem Jabali said there was no evidence of any other health issues in the infant.

They looked into whether the baby had been exposed to alcohol or drugs during his pregnancy - which he had not.

They were stumped as to how the condition could have occurred.

But decided the best option was to carefully remove the two extra stubs while the baby was put under anaesthesia.

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A year later, the baby was healthy and had recovered well but will need check-ups as he goes through puberty and before marriage, the report said.

Dr Jabali wrote: Triphallia (three penises) is unreported condition in human until now.

Treatment is difficult because it poses medical, ethical, and cosmetic aspects.

Read the rest here:
Baby boy born in Iraq is first to be born with three penises, doctors claim... - The Sun

Suited up in protective gear, a team of women fan out across the rugged fields of Basra.

Defying rigid gender norms in Iraq, they search with careful precision for dangerous explosives.

Hind Ali explains why she joined the all-female demining team.

"The main reason I joined the team is a humanitarian one. Vast areas of the province of Basra have a lot of mines, people have been prevented from living on those lands. Moreover, there is a lack of awareness among some people that has caused countless accidents in the province of Basra."

Ridding their province from landmines the 14 women were trained over the course of 40 days.

Equipping them with the tools and knowledge to find and safely clear different types of mines.

The difficulty and danger of the task however, was not their only obstacle.

But rejection from their community for women to take up such tasks has also proven difficult.

"Until now, no one has encouraged me in this field, because, well you know, families are worried. Just hearing the term 'demining' causes immense fear for many people, especially with parents and close relatives, even now, my family and close friends are completely against it."

Over the past years, mines have killed and injured dozens of Iraqis in the east and west of the city.

In Basra, there are thousands of kilometres still full of mines, as a result of the Iraq-Iran war and the Gulf war. With each piece of new ground cleared, these women are saving lives.

- Suited up in protective gear, a team of women fanned out across the rugged fields of Basra.

Defying rigid gender norms in Iraq, they searched with careful precision for dangerous explosives.

Hind Ali explains why she joined the all-female demining team.

HIND ALI: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

INTERPRETER: The main reason I joined the team as a humanitarian one. Vast areas of the province of Basra have a lot of mines. People have been prevented from living on these lands. Moreover, there's a lack of awareness among some people that has caused countless accidents in the province of Basra.

Story continues

- Ridding their province from landmines, the 14 women were trained over the course of 40 days-- equipping them with the tools and knowledge to find and safely clear different types of mines. The difficulty and danger of the task, however, was not their only obstacle. But rejection from their community for women to take up such tasks has also proven difficult.

INTERPETER: Until now, no one has encouraged me in this field because, well, you know, families are worried. Just hearing the term "demining" causes immense fear for many people, especially with parents and close relatives. Even now, my family and close friends are completely against it.

- Over the past years, mines have killed and injured dozens of Iraqis in the east and west of the city. In Basra, there are thousands of kilometers still full of mines, as a result of the Iraq-Iran war and the Gulf War. With each piece of new ground cleared, these women are saving lives.

The rest is here:
Meet the women braving Iraq's minefields in Basra - Yahoo News