Skip to main content
France - Europe - Iraq

EU ministers hold meeting on arming Iraqi Kurds

Foreign ministers of the European Union are to meet in Brussels on Friday as some members of the 28-nation bloc have asserted pressure to provide arms supplies to the country’s embattled Kurdish minority fighting Islamic State militants.

Members of the minority Yazidi religious sect in Iraq.
Members of the minority Yazidi religious sect in Iraq. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal
Advertising

The emergency gathering comes after strong demands from France to send arms and criticism from its Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius to his EU colleagues for remaining on holiday while civilians were being killed in Iraq.

“When people are dying…you have to come back from your holidays,” Fabius said earlier this week after writing a letter to EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton demanding an emergency meeting of ministers.

Italy, which currently holds the EU’s rotating leadership, also called for a meeting to discuss the deepening crisis in Iraq.

Friday’s rare summertime meeting comes a day after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he agreed to relinquish power after a bitter power struggle and rumours of a possible military coup in Baghdad.

France and Britain have already committed to shipping weapons to the Iraqi Kurds but are pushing for an EU-wide pledge for arms, body armour, ammunition, and night vision equipment.

Europe had long been relunctant to get involved in the country since the 2003 US-led invasion in Iraq, but the gains made across Iraq and Syria by Islamic State fighters have pushed some nations to have deeper involvement. 

The plight of members of the Yazidi religious minority trapped atop Mount Sinjar has especially enraged the international community and sprung somewhat unlikely actors to action, but the Iraqi crisis also resonates closer to home for some EU nations including France, Britain and Germany.

Hundreds of young Europeans have reportedly joined Islamic State forces, and there’s rising concern among EU governments of their capabilities if they return after joining jihad battles.

Friday’s meeting will also address the crises in Ukraine and Gaza and the Ebola breakout in west Africa.
 

Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning

Keep up to date with international news by downloading the RFI app

Share :
Page not found

The content you requested does not exist or is not available anymore.