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Merkel addresses parliament on weapon deliveries to Iraq

01 September 2014 23:47 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday addressed the parliament on her government's plan of sending weapons to Iraq to help fight against the Islamic State (IS) militants, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The Bundestag has hold a debate over German weapon deliveries to the Kurds in Iraq in the afternoon.

In her statements to parliament members, Merkel said her government was aware of the risk of sending weapons and had carefully weighed its decision on this issue.

Germany decided to take responsibility to help fight against militants by providing limited military assistance to Iraq, Merkel said, noting that the IS also threatens the security interests of Germany and Europe.

The Chancellor stressed the government made the decision after having reached an agreement with the Iraqi central government as well as coordinated closely with Germany's allies.

She also pledged further humanitarian aid for Iraq, saying Germany is willing to take more refugees if needed.

Germany decided Sunday to provide the Kurds with weapons from German army arsenal with a total value of about 70 million euros (about 92 million U.S. dollars), including anti-tank missiles, bazookas, machine guns, assault rifles and hand grenades.