July 23 () –
The German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, has canceled at the last minute the visit he was scheduled to make this Sunday to Iraq given the enormous social tension in the country, immersed in protests against the recent burning of copies of the Koran in Stockholm (Sweden) and Copenhagen (Denmark).
In fact, and according to Bloomberg reports, the decision took place when the official plane in which the minister and his delegation were traveling was about to take off from the Berlin airport.
The trip was part of parliamentary procedure to extend the deployment time of the small German military contingent in Iraq that is training the national security forces.
The spokesman for the Ministry, Kevin Huuk, has confirmed to Bloomberg that the retreat has taken place “given the violent riots” that have occurred in recent days in Iraq, in particular the attempted assault on the Danish Embassy on Saturday and the attack last afternoon against an NGO, also from Denmark.
“Right now we cannot rule out that the situation worsens or that new protests occur with the insecurity that this entails,” added the spokesman.
