ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Paris hosted a conference on protecting minority groups in the Middle East Tuesday, and the war against the Islamic State was at the top of the agenda.
Speaking to Rudaw, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said they wanted to find a resolution to end conflict and security issues in the Middle East.
"Rights of all the religious elements and ethnic groups in the Middle East have to be protected. The fight against ISIS is not a concern for the Middle East alone, but an international issue," he told Rudaw.
Fabius continued by emphasizing that a road map is necessary in order to send humanitarian aid for war zone areas in the Middle East. "We have a road map in terms of humanitarian aid and fighting radicals, but the international community should practically help us first so as to operate the road map we have," he said.
Meanwhile, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said at the conference, "A number of minorities are suffering persecution in the region."
"Eastern Christians must be taken in but there are also Muslims who are being persecuted and there are other minorities who are with the same amount of barbarism," Cazeneuve continued.
The Paris conference, attended by representatives of around 60 countries, was to draw up an "action charter" to help members of minorities who have fled to return to the Middle East voluntarily, Fabius said before the conference’s opening.
More than 100 leading world figures, including foreign ministers, Muslim and Christian clergy, parliamentarians and media representatives attended the conference.
The decision to hold the conference was made at a UN Security Council meeting in March, where Fabius raised the plight of Christians and Yezidis in Kurdish regions of Iraq, and Kurds in the Syrian town of Kobani.
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