Victor Boştinaru, on behalf of the S&D Group. – Madam President, I will first express my Group’s gratitude for the manner in which all political groups were cooperating yesterday in order to adopt swiftly a very balanced and a very serious piece of positioning ourselves under situation in Mosul in the northern part of Iraq. And, once again, our gratitude to all.

The fight for Mosul shows a quick territorial win for the Iraqi-led coalition forces. Mosul is more than a symbol. It is a decisive step in our effort to defeat Daesh. This being said, this is foreseen to be a long-lasting operation and our absolute priority is to protect the civilians. We have to ensure that they will not remain trapped in Mosul under heavy gunfire and bomb attacks, and they are not used as human shields by Daesh. We have to ensure that the military on all fronts will open humanitarian corridors for the citizens and IDPs that flee the fighting.

Therefore my Group calls on all parties to abide by international humanitarian law, to respect principles of proportionality and distinction, and to take all precautions to minimise casualties and to ensure that civilians and civilian infrastructure will be protected, like schools and hospitals, and then they will not be bombed. The evidence of the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Daesh should be preserved as a fundamental priority in order to ensure accountability for the perpetrators. With Mosul the Daesh scourge could be largely vanished in Iraq, but Daesh is just a symptom of a larger problem in the Middle East. Until there is a political accommodation between Shia and Sunnis in Iraq and in the region we will not achieve peace in Syria and the terrorism will remain. Finally, it is important to take this opportunity to express our full support for the sovereignty, territorial integrity of Iraq. And then the dramatic need, after Daesh, of a strategy which will involve further humanitarian aid, the re-establishment of the governance, basic services such as healthcare, electricity and education, but also guarantee for the safe return and reintegration of refugees and IDPs, the protection of vulnerable minorities, and the political participation of all religious minorities.