Countries decide to support Iraq against the Islamic State.

From the Lusa News Agency

The countries participating in the Paris international conference on peace and security in Iraq pledged to support Baghdad's fight against the Islamic State (IS) jihadists "by all necessary means," including military means.

"Participants at the Paris conference said that the Islamic State poses a threat not only to Iraq but also to the international community as a whole," states the final declaration of the meeting.

In this regard, they "committed to supporting, by the necessary means, the new Iraqi government in its fight against the Islamic State, including appropriate military assistance" that corresponds "to the needs expressed by the Iraqi authorities" and ensures "respect for international law and the security of civilian populations."

The authorities of the countries present at the conference emphasized their determination to implement the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions, particularly resolution 2.170, which aims to prevent the recruitment and financing of jihadists, stating their willingness to take all "necessary measures to ensure that they produce their full effects."

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius stressed that today's conference (15) "was at once a meeting about the seriousness [of the situation] and about hope." He celebrated the presence of "30 countries, among the most powerful in the world, in different geographical and ideological situations, but all determined to fight against the Islamic State."

"Many have insisted on the need to cut off funding to this terrorist group, and a conference to that effect will soon be organized at the initiative of our friends in Bahrain," the minister said.

At the opening of the conference, the presidents of France, François Hollande, and Iraq, Fuad Massum, called for international commitment in the fight against ISIS jihadists, a request that Iran, a neighboring country absent from the meeting, refused.

Since August 8th, the United States has been conducting airstrikes against jihadist positions in northern Iraq. Several countries, including France and Germany, have decided to send weapons to Iraqi Kurdish fighters on the front lines of the fight against the Islamic State.

In Berlin, a spokesperson for the German government announced today that the first shipment of German weapons for the Kurds will arrive in northern Iraq next week and will consist of 4 G3 automatic rifles, 4 P1 pistols, 20 Milan anti-tank missiles, 120 anti-tank rocket launchers, and 20 MG3 machine guns.

The Paris conference, attended by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, took place two days after the release of the video of the beheading of British hostage David Haines, the third Westerner executed in this way by jihadists in less than a month, following American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.