LONDON: Parts of Iraq, including the once ethnically diverse city of Mosul, remain unsafe for Christians and other minority groups, more than a month after the government declared victory over Daesh.
Speaking during a debate in the House of Lords on Thursday discussing the rights of religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq, Christopher Cocksworth, Lord Bishop of Coventry, described the “terrible tears in the fabric of Iraqi society” and emphasised the importance of “social reconstruction” in ensuring the stability and success of post-conflict Iraq.
Along with Christians, he said Yazidis, Kurds, Turkmens, Mandaeans and Shabaks, have not returned to Mosul, the city they once called home.
Schools and media have a vital role to play in harnessing the potential that Iraq’s large youth population affords for creating a new culture of understanding and respect through education, Cocksworth said, quoting comments made to him by an Assyrian priest ministering in Dohuk.
“We may not be able to restore the Christian demography that we had in the past, but we can preserve for the future a presence and role for the Christian community in our society so that through our schools, our skills and our hospitals, we can serve all the people of this land.”
Baroness Anelay of St. Johns said: “Daesh no longer holds significant territory there, but whilst Daesh is failing, they’re not yet wholly defeated and still pose a threat to Iraq.”
She referenced Theresa May’s visit to Iraq in December, during which the prime minister acknowledged the need to address the conditions that enabled Daesh’s rise.
“We must recognize that the challenges facing minorities didn’t begin with Daesh and will not end in their defeat alone,” the Baroness added.
“Solutions must confront longstanding issues of discrimination, exclusion and marginalization.”
Raising the brutal targeting of Yazidi and Christian minorities by Daesh, which have been recognized as genocides by the UN, and the long-time suffering of the country’s Kurdish community, Baroness Hodgson of Abinger said, “The situation there, whilst improving in some ways, is far from settled.”
While the conditions remain present for the terror group to return to the country, minority communities in Iraq are fearful that, “Unless the causes of the violence are rooted out it will return and as before minorities will be the first victims,” Cocksworth said.
He pointed to the chaos following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which, by 2014 had reduced the Christian population by some 75 percent, and, “Earlier cycles of violence which wave after wave eroded their security and forced former generations to flee.”
The UK has a “moral responsibility” and “strategic interest” in helping to secure the stability and success of Iraq, he said, calling for a “long-term commitment to a coalition of reconstruction.”
Success in Iraq, so long a land marking a failure of British foreign policy, is of vital strategic importance, he continued. “Daesh might be a hydra with heads surfacing across the world, but if it can be fatally wounded in the country of its birth, it would be starved of vital sources of energy, morale and inspiration.”
‘Social reconstruction’ is vital for long-term stability in Iraq
‘Social reconstruction’ is vital for long-term stability in Iraq
Gaza ceasefire enters phase two despite unresolved issues
- Under the second phase, Gaza is to be administered by a 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee operating under the supervision of a so-called “Board of Peace,” to be chaired by Trump
JERUSALEM: A US-backed plan to end the war in Gaza has entered its second phase despite unresolved disputes between Israel and Hamas over alleged ceasefire violations and issues unaddressed in the first stage.
The most contentious questions remain Hamas’s refusal to publicly commit to full disarmament, a non-negotiable demand from Israel, and Israel’s lack of clarity over whether it will fully withdraw its forces from Gaza.
The creation of a Palestinian technocratic committee, announced on Wednesday, is intended to manage day-to-day governance in post-war Gaza, but it leaves unresolved broader political and security questions.
Below is a breakdown of developments from phase one to the newly launched second stage.
Gains and gaps in phase one
The first phase of the plan, part of a 20-point proposal unveiled by US President Donald Trump, began on October 10 and aimed primarily to stop the fighting in the Gaza Strip, allow in aid and secure the return of all remaining living and deceased hostages held by Hamas and allied Palestinian militant groups.
All hostages have since been returned, except for the remains of one Israeli, Ran Gvili.
Israel has accused Hamas of delaying the handover of Gvili’s body, while Hamas has said widespread destruction in Gaza made locating the remains difficult.
Gvili’s family had urged mediators to delay the transition to phase two.
“Moving on breaks my heart. Have we given up? Ran did not give up on anyone,” his sister, Shira Gvili, said after mediators announced the move.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said efforts to recover Gvili’s remains would continue but has not publicly commented on the launch of phase two.
Hamas has accused Israel of repeated ceasefire violations, including air strikes, firing on civilians and advancing the so-called “Yellow Line,” an informal boundary separating areas under Israeli military control from those under Hamas authority.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Israeli forces had killed 451 people since the ceasefire took effect.
Israel’s military said it had targeted suspected militants who crossed into restricted zones near the Yellow Line, adding that three Israeli soldiers were also killed by militants during the same period.
Aid agencies say Israel has not allowed the volume of humanitarian assistance envisaged under phase one, a claim Israel rejects.
Gaza, whose borders and access points remain under Israeli control, continues to face severe shortages of food, clean water, medicine and fuel.
Israel and the United Nations have repeatedly disputed figures on the number of aid trucks permitted to enter the Palestinian territory.
Disarmament, governance in phase two
Under the second phase, Gaza is to be administered by a 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee operating under the supervision of a so-called “Board of Peace,” to be chaired by Trump.
“The ball is now in the court of the mediators, the American guarantor and the international community to empower the committee,” Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas leader, said in a statement on Thursday.
Trump on Thursday announced the board of peace had been formed and its members would be announced “shortly.”
Mediators Egypt, Turkiye and Qatar said Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister in the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, had been appointed to lead the committee.
Later on Thursday, Egyptian state television reported that all members of the committee had “arrived in Egypt and begun their meetings in preparation for entering the territory.”
Al-Qahera News, which is close to Egypt’s state intelligence services, said the members’ arrival followed US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s announcement on Wednesday “of the start of the second phase and what was agreed upon at the meeting of Palestinian factions in Cairo yesterday.”
Shaath, in a recent interview, said the committee would rely on “brains rather than weapons” and would not coordinate with armed groups.
On Wednesday, Witkoff said phase two aims for the “full demilitarization and reconstruction of Gaza,” including the disarmament of all unauthorized armed factions.
Witkoff said Washington expected Hamas to fulfil its remaining obligations, including the return of Gvili’s body, warning that failure to do so would bring “serious consequences.”
The plan also calls for the deployment of an International Stabilization Force to help secure Gaza and train vetted Palestinian police units.
For Palestinians, the central issue remains Israel’s full military withdrawal from Gaza — a step included in the framework but for which no detailed timetable has been announced.
With fundamental disagreements persisting over disarmament, withdrawal and governance, diplomats say the success of phase two will depend on sustained pressure from mediators and whether both sides are willing — or able — to move beyond long-standing red lines.
