Canada Promises Support Against Islamic State with ‘Limited Budget’

Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed his willingness to back fights against the Islamic State. However, he said that Canada would have a limited budget to do so.

Harper appealed on Wednesday, Sep 3 for stronger action against the extremist organisations in the Middle Eastern countries. He was speaking in London as he was on a UK visit to the NATO summit to be held on Sep 4 & 5. He reacted to the recently emerged video, which had allegedly shown the execution of another U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff by the IS. This was the second video in the last couple of weeks that showed the beheading of U.S. journalists. The first video showed the execution of American photo-journalist James Foley.

Harper, on the other hand, expressed concern over the execution of numerous other unknown victims in Syria and Iraq by the militant organisation. "The fact is, this is the tip of an iceberg of literally tens of thousands of people who are being treated in this way," Harper said, "It obviously has the capacity of not just leading regional jihad, but becoming a massive terrorist training base for the globe and I don't think we can sit still for this."

NATO earlier said that it would like Canada to be a part of its rapid response troop. National leaders of NATO countries are expected to finalise a "Readiness Action Plan" at the summit that will ensure a stronger resistance against Russia, which has allegedly started acting together with the separatists against Ukraine. NATO is all set to build around 4,000 troops that can be deployed with only a few hours' notice. Canada's participation in the troops may, however, face a strong opposition at home, primarily due to budget concerns.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird went for a top-secret Iraq visit. He apparently promised Iraqi officials that Canada would help the Middle Easters country counter the extremist forces. The budget for the fight, however, will be limited, according to Baird. "I'm here in Iraq to demonstrate Canada's commitment to Iraq's stability, security, and prosperity," he said. "We acknowledge as a government that we will likely be spending more, but we will only be spending where there is clearly need."

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au