France began supplying weapons directly to Kurdish forces in northern Iraq to help stem an advance by Islamist militants as Europe stepped up its response to the conflict.
The deliveries “respond to the urgent needs expressed by the regional authorities in Kurdistan” and will begin in “the coming hours,” French President Francois Hollande said today in an e-mailed statement.
The French decision reflects a broader European recognition of the need to move beyond humanitarian aid to help shore up the Kurdish forces as a bulwark against Islamic State. Germany said that European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton may hold an emergency meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers on Aug. 15, following calls by the French and Italian governments for EU-wide talks on Iraq.
British Prime Minister David Cameron returned from vacation today and convened a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee to discuss Iraq. The German government is ready to use “leeway” to help the Kurds combat the “bloodthirsty extremists” of Islamic State, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, told reporters in Berlin.
So far, the U.S. is the only country to have openly stated it’s delivering weapons to the Kurdish regional government, though U.S. officials have suggested other countries in the region are also delivering arms. The U.S. has struck Islamic State positions from the air, attacks that the British, French and Germans have supported while saying they won’t join.
Refugee Evacuation
The U.K. is considering supplying weapons directly to the Kurdish forces amid concerns that the presence of Islamic State fighters in the area will complicate any operation to take refugees to safety, according to a U.K. government official who asked not to be named discussing the internal plans.
Planning for an evacuation of members of the Yezidi religious minority and Christians trapped by Islamist fighters on Mount Sinjar are at an advanced stage, the official said. Even so, it would be a very complicated operation to carry out because of the number of people involved and the terrain, as well as the presence of militant fighters, the official said.
The two main options are to secure a landing zone and use helicopters to evacuate the refugees, or to create a corridor that would allow them to escape by land, according to two U.S. defense officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because no plan has been approved.
Air Drops
The corridor is a possibility, but there are problems associated with it, according to a German government official who asked not to be named because the deliberations continue. The official didn’t elaborate.
The U.K. said it carried out a third air drop of supplies including shelter kits over northern Iraq last night, as the German government readied items including blankets, protective vests, helmets and Unimog transport trucks. France will fly in 20 tons of medicine, tents and water purification equipment today for use by the Kurdish regional government.
“Other operations will be carried out by France in the following days to come to the aid of populations in serious danger,” the Foreign Ministry said in an e-mailed statement.
With television pictures showing the plight of the refugees trapped by Islamic State, public pressure is growing for Europe’s governments to do more. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius expressed impatience yesterday with his European counterparts staying on holiday while Islamic State continued its onslaught in northern Iraq.
Taking Time
Thirty-seven percent of U.K. voters would back RAF air strikes on Iraq, while 36 percent were against, according to a YouGov poll for yesterday’s Sun newspaper. That compares to 69 percent who opposed military intervention in Syria last year.
“What’s our plan in Iraq?” said a headline in the Daily Telegraph newspaper demanding the recall of Parliament to debate the U.K.’s course of action. The government has so far resisted.
Governments “will take their time to make sure what they do is reasoned, informed and accurate,” said Gareth Stansfield, director of Middle East studies at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based defense and security think tank. “The concern is that once you start with intervention, it can develop into something more.” In Iraq, “the unintended consequences could be significant,” he said.
RAF Tornado fighters which have been sent to provide surveillance for the relief effort are armed to be able to defend themselves from attack, the Ministry of Defence said. British Chinook helicopters are also being sent for use in relief operations.
“We’re doing what we can,” German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said on ARD television. “It is primarily the responsibility of the Americans and they’re assuming that responsibility and we appreciate that. We know how the Iraq war went and we know that the Americans are indeed assuming their responsibility there, together with others who were there.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net; Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net Tony Czuczka
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