Germany Is Sending a Military Training Mission to Northern Iraq
By ALISON SMALE
BAKU, Azerbaijan — Germany is
sending a mission to northern Iraq to examine whether its military, and
possibly those of other European nations, can expand the training of
Kurdish forces battling jihadists there, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday.
Asked
about reports in the German news media that training by Germany’s armed
forces in Erbil, in northern Iraq, would soon expand, Mr. Steinmeier
noted that his country’s cabinet had approved both humanitarian aid and
the delivery of military weapons, along with limited training on them,
several weeks ago.
“We
have an exploratory mission which is examining what and whether
something could work” in Erbil in terms of expanded training, Mr.
Steinmeier said at a news conference during a visit to Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan
shares a border with Iran, another focus of international diplomacy as
the deadline nears for an agreement to limit Iran’s enrichment of
uranium — and to prevent that country from developing a nuclear weapon —
after almost a decade of negotiations.
In
July, international negotiators extended the deadline on the Iran talks
by four months, with discussions expected to come to a head in
November, after the midterm elections for the United States Congress.
Mr.
Steinmeier embarked on his trip to the Caucasus on Tuesday fresh from a
dinner and talks with Secretary of State John Kerry. The two men
indicated that Iran had taken up a good chunk of their time, with
discussions about how much uranium Iran could continue to enrich, how
much enriched uranium it might hold and how to prevent it from building a
nuclear weapon.
“There
is no such thing as a deal,” Mr. Steinmeier emphasized after the talks
in Berlin on Tuesday. There has to be a well-negotiated and firm
agreement that prevents Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, he said.
Diplomats
on all sides have cautioned that Iran should not expect a complete
lifting of sanctions immediately if a deal is reached. In both the
United States and Iran, political opposition to an accord means that any
agreement would need finessing to take hold.
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