EU — Council conclusions on Iraq

3048th FOREIGN AFFAIRS Coun­cil meet­ing, Brus­sels, 22 Novem­ber 2010
The Coun­cil adopt­ed the fol­low­ing con­clu­sions:
“The EU wel­comes the agree­ment on the appoint­ment of the Iraqi Pres­i­dent, Prime Min­is­ter and Speak­er with deputies on 11 Novem­ber 2010. These encour­ag­ing first steps towards the for­ma­tion of an inclu­sive new Gov­ern­ment in Iraq fol­low­ing the elec­tions on 7 March mark an impor­tant moment in the country’s ongo­ing demo­c­ra­t­ic process.

The EU under­lines the urgent need for a sta­ble and rep­re­sen­ta­tive gov­ern­ment, which is able to reded­i­cate itself to the pur­suit of nation­al rec­on­cil­i­a­tion. Such a gov­ern­ment will be vital to lead the coun­try in deal­ing with all the chal­lenges ahead, includ­ing tack­ling con­tin­u­ing vio­lence in Iraq, respond­ing to the aspi­ra­tions of all Iraqis — regard­less of creed or eth­nic­i­ty — and respect­ing, pro­tect­ing and pro­mot­ing human rights, includ­ing those of per­sons belong­ing to minori­ties. The EU strong­ly encour­ages all polit­i­cal actors to par­tic­i­pate con­struc­tive­ly in the nego­ti­a­tions to form swift­ly a new gov­ern­ment. The EU looks for­ward to engag­ing with this new gov­ern­ment as soon as it is in place.

The EU also wish­es to express its deep con­cern and out­right con­dem­na­tion of the recent ter­ror­ist attacks in Iraq in which scores of inno­cent civil­ians lost their lives and hun­dreds were wound­ed. The attacks delib­er­ate­ly tar­get­ed loca­tions where civil­ians con­gre­gate, includ­ing Chris­t­ian and Mus­lim places of wor­ship. The EU con­demns all incite­ment to and acts of vio­lence includ­ing those moti­vat­ed by reli­gious and eth­nic hatred. The EU express­es con­fi­dence that the peo­ple of Iraq will remain stead­fast in their con­tin­ued rejec­tion of efforts by extrem­ists to spark sec­tar­i­an tension.” 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union 

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