Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says he is using his unannounced visit to Iraq to tour the front lines, meet with Kurdish military commanders and Canada’s special forces, as well as with Canada’s coalition partners to discuss the ongoing mission against ISIS.
“This allows me to get a first-hand experience of the realities on the ground, which is very important for me,” Sajjan told reporters in a teleconference from Irbil, Monday.
The minister said he and his colleagues have discussed how Canada can continue its military commitment to the fight with a larger training mission.
And he said the coalition’s ability to help Kurdish fighters end last week’s 17-hour attack, in which Islamic State units unleashed artillery and large suicide bomber trucks, shows how important Canada’s training and assist mission has been in the region.
Asked about plans to withdraw Canada’s CF-18 fighter jets from the mission, Sajjan said he is not being guided by the March 31, 2016, deadline set by the former Conservative government.
“The decision to end the airstrikes is based not on that deadline; it’s about what future capabilities we’re bringing as part of the fight and also when we end the airstrikes, that it’s not going to be decrease any capabilities for the coalition,” he told reporters.
He added: “We are coming very close to that understanding and the decision will be coming not too far in the distance future.”
The Trudeau government has said it intends to withdraw our CF-18s from Iraq and Syria sometime in the new year, while also bolstering the training mission.
On Sunday, Sajjan met his Iraqi counterpart in Baghdad and with Kurdish leaders in Irbil. Earlier, he met his Egyptian counterpart during a stop in Cairo.
Sajjan was also asked Monday about whether Canada has been asked to contribute to suppressing Islamic State in Libya. He responded that he and his team are looking at all potential threats with the aim of stamping out problems early, before they grow.
“I’ve been talking about how we need to look wider than the current threats we face here in Syria and Iraq,” he said.
“This is very important that we get this right, but we have to ready for future threats.”
Sajjan said Libya is “obviously one situation that needs to be resolved” but he said there is an “an evolving situation” in the Sinai peninsula of Egypt, where Canada has had peacekeepers for several years, enforcing the treaty between Israel and Egypt.
