Japan pledges $200m to combat ISIL

Funds part of $2.5bn in non-military assistance pledged to Middle East by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on visit to Cairo.

 

 PM Abe said stability in the Middle East is the foundation for peace and prosperity for the world [Reuters]

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged about $200m in non-military assistance for countries battling  the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
A Japanese foreign ministry official told the AFP news agency that most of the funds would go towards assisting Iraq and Syria's neighbouring states, which are hosting refugees.
The United Nations has warned that the number of Syrian refugees could shoot up to 4.27 million by December from the current figure of more than three million.
"It goes without saying that the stability of the Middle East is the foundation for peace and prosperity for the world, and of course for Japan," Abe said in Cairo on Saturday in the first leg of a regional six-day tour.
"Should we leave terrorism or weapons of mass destruction to spread in this region, the loss imparted upon the international community would be immeasurable."
The threat of violence has come into sharp focus outside the Middle East after gunmen killed 17 people in three days of violence in Paris that began on January 7 with an attack on the offices of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper that had published satirical images of the Prophet Muhammad.
ISIL controls large parts of OPEC oil producer Iraq and neighbouring Syria, where it has declared a caliphate and wants to redraw the map of a region vital for Japan's energy needs.
In addition to the $2.2bn in assistance Japan pledged for the Middle East two years ago, Abe said his government would provide another $2.5bn in non-military assistance in fields such as humanitarian assistance and infrastructure.