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Katja Kipping, Bernd Riexinger, Gregor Gysi

International Community to Speak and Act Concertedly

Party Chairs of DIE LINKE, Katja Kipping and Bernd Riexinger, as well as the Chair of DIE LINKE parliamentary group in Bundestag, Gregor Gysi, make the following common statement regarding the events in North Iraq:

The events in North Iraq and Syria are dramatic. The barbaric cruelties of the "Islamic State" terror mobs cost lives daily and expel tens of thousands from their home country. The studiously exhibited atrocities of the "Islamic State", images of the immeasurable suffering of the refugees, and the obvious failure of Iraq as a state lead to worldwide uncertainty and a new contemplation on the right strategy for ending the conflict. It is part of the truth that there would be no advance of the "Islamic State" if there had not been an invasion into Iraq against international law and if the West had not constantly added fuel to the flames of the civil war in Syria. The terror mob of the "Islamic State" are creatures of a completely neglected and failed security policy of the West which produces failed states in a row and goes on with it.

As another result of this policy today in this region a genocide is impending which as to be prevented. Any act of self defense against the advance of the terror mob of the "Islamic State" is legitimate. The international community has to act according to three equally relevant premises: acute conflict containment, political deescalation, and humanitarian aid. This must not be the hour of interventions. A third Iraq war is no solution. This must be the hour of the United Nations.

Neither the protection of endangered people nor a sustainable peace solution will be achievable if the international community does not develop a common mulitlateral strategy for the region based on international law. In this acute situation threatening hundreds of thousands the international community has to jointly speak and act.

The most important precondition for such a multilateral turnabout of the international treatment of the conflicts in Iraq and Syria is the ending of the approaching East West confrontation. The U.S. and Russia as the crucial global major powers have to resolve their conflicts on behalf of the creation of a new global security order. Only then the United Nations possess the authority to initiate the decisive steps towards preventing a genocide and the end of the military conflicts.

The world is at a crossroads between a new era of escalation in bloc constellations and a renaissance of international conflict solution mechanisms on a global scale.

All humanitarian efforts must be immediatedly increased to ease the suffering of the people of the regions. To this belongs, of course, help for the refugees, starting from safe escort from the conflict area to the supply with food and accommodation. To this also belongs that the countries of the West take in much more refugees then before. It is not acceptable that people having survived the horror of civil war fail at the borders of the fortress Europe. Germany has to act immediately as well.