EU Foreign Ministers back military support for Kurds in Northern Iraq

Brussels: Foreign ministers of the European Union on Friday unanimously endorsed the efforts of individual member states to provide military support to the Kurds in northern Iraq, and welcomed attempts by United States forces for an escalation of the humanitarian crisis there.

Catherine Ashton, the union’s foreign affairs chief, called back the top diplomats of the 28-nation bloc seeking to forge a common response to the latest escalation of the crisis in Iraq. The semiautonomous Kurdish north has been threatened by militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Speaking to reporters before the meeting here, Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, urged Europe “to mobilize itself.” France has already said it would supply arms to the Kurds. European opinion on how to respond has been particularly inflamed by the plight of thousands of Yazidis and Christians who have been driven from their homes by the ISIS fighters.

A statement on the ministers’ conclusions on Iraq contained no mention of coordinated military assistance but added that they would continue to work on providing humanitarian aid. “The E.U. welcomes the U.S. efforts to support the Iraqi national and local authorities in their fight against ISIL and recognizes international and European responsibility to cooperate with Iraq in our common fight against terrorism,” the union statement said, using an alternate acronym for ISIS.

In addition to the French, the Czechs and Italians were also said to be preparing military aid for Iraq, and the British foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, has said Britain would look “favorably” on Iraqi requests for arms to combat ISIS. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, said in an afternoon news conference here that “it has become clearer in Europe and in Germany that the advance of the ISIS forces will not stop in Kurdistan” unless action is taken”.

The meeting on Friday came a day after Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq said that he had agreed to step down after days of pressure from the United States and of rumors in Baghdad that a military coup was in the offing.