Iraq not at risk of civil war – Iraq’s Foreign Minister

Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the Iraqi army is reorganizing itself and preparing to advance against al-Qaeda and ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters. Mr Zebari said “Since last evening until today the Iraqi army have been making progress, preventing forces form reaching any sensitive instillations north of Baghdad.”

ISIL fighers were, according to some accounts, advancing on Baghdad after storming the cities of Mosul and Tikrit in recent days. ISIL has rapidly overrun the northern province of Nineveh and significant parts of Kirkuk and Salaheddin provinces, and also moving into northern Diyala.

Mr. Zebari, who was attending a conference on sexual violence in warzones, added “We are confident Iraqi forces and political leaders will come together to defeat al-Qaeda and prevent them from establishing their own Islamic state in western Iraq and eastern Syria.”

Mr. Zebari denied there is a danger of an “entrenched” civil war breaking out in Iraq. “I think most Iraqis are united to defeat them.”

He blamed the current situation in Iraq on “spill-over” from the Syrian civil war. “It is something Iraq has warned the world about for the last two to three years.”