EU planning foreign ministers meeting on Iraq

The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is ready to hold a meeting of foreign ministers on the crisis in Iraq, a spokesman said today.
"Ashton is ready to convene a FAC (Foreign Affairs Council) as early as this week and is checking with member states if it is possible," the spokesman said, following a meeting of EU ambassadors yesterday.
France and Italy have for days been calling for such a meeting to respond to Iraqi Kurd appeals for weapons in the face of a jihadist onslaught in northern Iraq.
But some countries are reticent by principle to provide weapons to a conflict zone, but in what an EU source called a major breakthrough, none of the EU envoys who met yesterday voiced opposition to the call for arms by France, Italy and Britain.

Following the footsteps of Britain, President Francois Hollande today said France would provide weapons to Iraqi forces fighting the Islamic State militants.
Britain has announced yesterday that it would transport military supplies to Kurdish forces battling the militants amid Western fears the crisis could spread throughout the region.

The envoy meeting yesterday was set up in an effort to better coordinate the response by member states to a crisis the EU's executive called the world's most pressing emergency.
The ambassadors unanimously agreed on the need for urgent and increased humanitarian support but did not call for a meeting of foreign ministers, which is needed for any major coordinated action by bloc countries.

If the ministers do meet, it is expected the EU's top diplomats will also discuss the crisis in Ukraine as well as the latest developments in Gaza.
Earlier today, the European Commission boosted aid to Iraq to 17 million euros, though it said access to besieged civilians was the real challenge, not the lack of humanitarian funding.
The US, which has been carrying out air strikes against jihadist positions, said it was assessing rescue options for the hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped on Mount Sinjar while the UN warned of "potential genocide".