EU ministers agree to arm Iraqi Kurds

European Union ministers agreed on Friday during an emergency meeting in Brussels to arm the beleaguered Iraqi Kurds fighting Islamic State militants overruning northern swaths of the country. 

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius had urged for Friday's meeting to arm the Iraqi Kurds. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani

Organised at the demands of France and Italy, the meeting was held to push individual states to step up their involvement.

“Iraq is on the brink of a true catastrophe. A million people in Iraq are fleeing their homes,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.

France and the US have already mobilised to provide the Kurds with arms, but this latest meeting confirmed an EU-wide scaling up of support to the Iraqi Kurds and minority groups being persecuted.

Britain had also signalled its commitment to providing military aid and weaponry before Friday’s meeting.

The ministers said they welcomed “the decision by individual member states to respond positively to the call by the Kurdish regional authorities to provide urgently military material."

Europe had long been reluctant 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.