Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg’s Hans Nichols reports on the emergency European Union meeting in Brussels to discuss Iraq and Ukraine crises. Nichols speaks on “Bloomberg Surveillance.” (Source: Bloomberg)
European Union foreign ministers met to discuss ways to squeeze Islamic State militants and help displaced civilians as governments began flying in aid to Iraq.
With France already sending weapons to Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, the 28 EU governments called an emergency meeting today to step up their joint response after the regional threat posed by Islamic State led thousands of minority Yezidis and Christians to flee their advance.
“It’s time to do more,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told reporters in Brussels before the talks. “We have to support those who are threatened, especially the Kurds in the north. Some military assistance also should be discussed.”
Iraq’s political and humanitarian crisis is surging onto the agenda as Europe struggles to maintain pressure on President Vladimir Putin to end the armed conflict in Ukraine that’s caused the worst standoff with Russia since the Cold War.
Ministers are also discussing the impact of Russia’s ban on some EU food imports and the outlook for humanitarian aid in eastern Ukraine, where government forces have shelled the eastern city of Donetsk to flush out Russian-backed separatists and a Russian aid convoy has stoked mutual mistrust. The fragile cease-fire in the Gaza Strip is also on the agenda.
“This is a crisis meeting in a crisis summer,” said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt. “We have a volatile international environment, to put it mildly, even a dangerous international environment, which puts great demands on the European Union.”
Aid Flights
Germany’s air force sent four aid flights on their way to Erbil in northern Iraq today with food, medicine and blankets, Luftwaffe spokesman Col. Michael Koetting said by phone. Italy will send 50 metric tons of food and water, 200 tents and 400 sleeping bags starting tomorrow, according to a government statement. The United Nations will distribute the aid.
“Let’s be honest: Humanitarian aid alone isn’t enough,” said Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz. “So I fear there won’t be any way around arms deliveries.”
EU unity on arms aid for Iraq may come more easily after authorities in Baghdad endorsed direct deliveries to Kurds. In addition to France, the U.K. has said it’s helping supply Kurdish forces with military aid, while Germany and Italy have said they will consider joining them.
Syria Echoes
The situation in Iraq risks echoing that in Syria, where the international community’s reaction was “late and timid,” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said as he arrived for the meeting. “To avoid this, the delivery of weapons to the Iraqi government has already been cleared and at the moment we are aiming to deliver weapons to the authorities of Kurdistan.”
Ministers also plan to consider options on oil-market measures aimed against Islamic State, which has captured oil fields on its advance through Iraq, according to an EU official who briefed reporters in Brussels yesterday, asking not to be named because the planning is confidential.
“Iraq truly faces a catastrophe,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters, saying he’ll travel to Iraq this weekend to discuss humanitarian aid with Kurdish officials. “As I’ve said, we have to go to the limit of what’s legally and politically possible.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Rebecca Christie in Brussels at rchristie4@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at jstearns2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net Tony Czuczka
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