US President Donald Trump has moved to give more aid to Iraq’s persecuted Christians and other religious minorities after the country’s State Department determined that they suffered genocide at the hands of the Islamic State.
Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities were subjected to a genocidal campaign by the now largely defeated Islamic State in Iraq, but the Middle East’s persecuted Christian communities have so far received little sympathy or aid from most Western countries.
Now President Trump’s administration will launch a multi-million-dollar programme to help these communities as many religious leaders warn they now face extinction in the region.
Chaldean Catholic priest, Fr. Thabet Habib Youssef, from the town of Karamles in Iraq’s Nineveh province thanked the Trump administration for its help in restoring security to their community and for funds aimed at rebuilding.
At a speech at the three-day ministerial summit launched by the State Department on Tuesday Fr. Thabet stated
“I wish to give thanks to the government of the United States for including us in this important conference and a special thanks to the administration of President Trump for his concern and commitment to the persecuted minority communities in Iraq.
I can say this conference gives us hope. Our greatest fear in the early years was that the world would forget us. This conference tells us we are not forgotten.”
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