Merkel dismisses link between Islamic terror, refugees after recent attacks in Germany
German Chancellor Angela Merkel giving an interview with the RedaktionsNetzwerks Deutschland (RND) on Friday.
AP, Berlin :
Chancellor Angela Merkel has dismissed suggestions that the influx of refugees over the past year has brought Islamic extremism to Germany.
German news agency dpa quotes Merkel as saying that “Islamist terrorism by ISIS isn’t a phenomenon that came to us with the refugees, it’s one that we had before too.”
Merkel was speaking late last night at a political rally in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where her Christian Democrats face strong competition from the nationalist Alternative for Germany party in state elections on September 4.
The country has been shaken by a string of attacks, two of which were the first in Germany claimed by the ISIS. In those, only the attackers – both asylum-seekers – were killed. In an unrelated attack, a German teenager killed nine people in Munich.
Meanwhile, there is no reason to lift the European Union’s sanctions against Russia as Moscow has not fulfilled all of its commitments under the Minsk peace plan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview published on Friday.
Merkel told the RedaktionsNetzwerks Deutschland (RND) that Russia had caused a major crisis by annexing the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014 and with its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
“Europe had to react against this violation of basic principles,” Merkel said.
She added that she and French President Francois Hollande were working “with all one’s strength” to urge Ukraine and Russia to implement the Minsk ceasefire agreement despite all the difficulties.
“This is and remains the yardstick for the future of the sanctions,” Merkel said.
The EU agreed in June to extend energy, financial and defense sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine until the end of January next year.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has dismissed suggestions that the influx of refugees over the past year has brought Islamic extremism to Germany.
German news agency dpa quotes Merkel as saying that “Islamist terrorism by ISIS isn’t a phenomenon that came to us with the refugees, it’s one that we had before too.”
Merkel was speaking late last night at a political rally in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where her Christian Democrats face strong competition from the nationalist Alternative for Germany party in state elections on September 4.
The country has been shaken by a string of attacks, two of which were the first in Germany claimed by the ISIS. In those, only the attackers – both asylum-seekers – were killed. In an unrelated attack, a German teenager killed nine people in Munich.
Meanwhile, there is no reason to lift the European Union’s sanctions against Russia as Moscow has not fulfilled all of its commitments under the Minsk peace plan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview published on Friday.
Merkel told the RedaktionsNetzwerks Deutschland (RND) that Russia had caused a major crisis by annexing the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014 and with its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
“Europe had to react against this violation of basic principles,” Merkel said.
She added that she and French President Francois Hollande were working “with all one’s strength” to urge Ukraine and Russia to implement the Minsk ceasefire agreement despite all the difficulties.
“This is and remains the yardstick for the future of the sanctions,” Merkel said.
The EU agreed in June to extend energy, financial and defense sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine until the end of January next year.
