Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you, and I thank you once again for the opportunity. I want to acknowledge Mr. Brad Butt, who came with me to Iraq; I'm very thankful to him. I want to acknowledge Mr. David Sweet, who has always been a great supporter of our cause. I want to acknowledge Mr. Wayne Marston

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I agree with you. When we start the reconciliation process in Iraq, the main problem is that there are two ways they will go. The first way is that they will have a meeting like this, where they will serve tea and coffee and take some pictures and put it in the media, and the m

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That's correct.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  So far I don't see any difference yet, to be honest with you; al-Abadi is talking the talk. Just when he will walk the walk is a different story. The difference here is that they learn the lesson. They saw ISIS take over 40% of their country. They saw Mosul collapsing. The less

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The ones who were able to escape to Kurdistan obviously are under the protection of the Kurdish government. We can help them on the ground, as I said, with shelters and medication, and secure their return home. The ones who still remain in ISIS territory will be given three opti

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  First of all, you have a Canadian embassy and you have ambassadors. By the way, we met with the Canadian ambassador there, and he is doing a great job. He is going everywhere. Usually the Canadian ambassador is sitting in their office doing nothing. Sorry, did I say that out loud

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  If we are just talking about the situation in Iraq, I believe that mainly because the Maliki government, which is majority Shia, mistreated the Sunnis—and the other minorities, not just the Sunnis—we see that the Sunnis, as I mentioned before, had to cooperate with ISIS in order

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you, Mr. Cotler, for your question. As usual your question is very simple but yet very complicated. Let's backtrack a little about ISIS and who they are. You need to understand that ISIS is a branch of al-Qaeda. The leader of ISIS is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The leader of al-

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  On the overall threat, which is the extremists, we have to understand the story from the beginning, when the so-called Arab Spring started. Now we are discovering that the Arab Spring turned out to be a cold, deadly winter. We're all against the dictatorships—please don't misun

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I believe that if we do it in a balanced way, we can.... The Peshmerga definitely need military aid and support, that is 100%. When we went to the front lines we spoke with the people from the Peshmerga troops and they definitely need the aid.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Mr. Marston, to be honest with you, I am not a military expert as well. I am scared that to answer the question would not be fair to the needs on the ground militarily. My advice is to do it in a balanced way so both military and humanitarian aid complete each other. That's how

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Absolutely, yes.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Of course the people are the most important. As well as giving humanitarian aid, we have to make sure the people are secure.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  All the groups are equally in need.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Let me just explain quickly. Doors are marked by the letter nun in Arabic. The letter nun stands for Nasrani, which is “Christian”, so it's the first letter of “Christian”. Of course, we met some of these people, especially in the first refugee camp in Erbil, when we went to the