Iraq President Tasks Abadi with Forming Government as U.S. Says Shipping Arms to Kurds

Iraqi President Fuad Masum on Monday tasked first deputy speaker of parliament Haidar al-Abadi with forming a government during a brief ceremony broadcast live on television.

"The country is now in your hands," Masum told Abadi, who moments earlier was selected as nominee for prime minister instead of incumbent Nuri al-Maliki by the Shiite National Alliance parliamentary bloc.

After the announcement, a senior U.S. diplomat with responsibility for Iraq on Monday congratulated al-Abadi on being tasked to form a new government as prime minister.

"The United States stands ready to fully support a new and inclusive Iraqi government," added Brett McGurk, who is U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.

"We welcome the decision by Iraq's President to charge the PM nominee of the largest parliamentary bloc to form a new cabinet," McGurk said, in a tweet.

"We congratulate Dr Haidar al-Abadi on the nomination and urge him to form a new cabinet and national program as swiftly as possible."

And U.S. Vice President Joe Biden hailed the nomination of a new Iraqi prime minister as a "key milestone" on Monday and offered U.S. help in rolling back gains by Islamic militants, the White House said.

Biden made the offer in a call to Iraqi President Masum, who had earlier asked al-Abadi to form a new government, replacing that of incumbent premier Nuri al-Maliki.

The White House said Biden "commended Masum for meeting this key milestone and reiterated President Obama's repeated calls for the timely creation of a new, more inclusive government that will be able to address the legitimate concerns of all Iraqis."

Biden "also emphasized President Obama's desire to boost coordination with a new Iraqi government and Iraqi security forces to roll back gains by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant."

Masum acted over the objections of Maliki, who gave a defiant televised speech at midnight suggesting he would fight to the end to keep his job.

The United States has expressed alarm over the rapid gains made by Islamic State militants since a lightning offensive in June that left Mosul and much of the Sunni heartland under the control of the extremists.

The leaders of France and Turkey, meanwhile, called on the newly nominated Iraqi prime minister to form a government of national unity quickly in the face of the jihadist threat.

French President Francois Hollande's office said in a statement that during a phone call with Turkish president-elect Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the two leaders "expressed the wish that the prime minister-designate Al-Abadi quickly form a government of national unity."

"They stressed the need for the political conditions to be created in Iraq that would allow an effective fight against Islamic State and that would also meet the aspirations of the country's people."

The two leaders said they backed the efforts of Iraqi President Masum as he attempts to break the political deadlock that has hampered the fight against Islamic extremists in the north of the country.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday also welcomed the appointment of a new Iraqi prime minister and called for calm after outgoing premier al-Maliki vowed to challenge the decision.

Ban said the appointment of al-Abadi was in accordance with the Iraqi constitution and represented "forward movement toward government formation in Iraq" which is fighting a jihadist offensive.

The U.N. chief "strongly urges all political parties and their supporters to remain calm and respect the political process governed by the constitution," said a statement from his spokesman.

Earlier, Iraq's President Masum had asked Abadi, formerly first deputy speaker of parliament, to set up a new government, despite resistance from incumbent Iraqi leader Nuri al-Maliki.

Maliki has threatened to take Masum to court for failing to nominate him to continue as prime minister. McGurk made it clear that Washington supports a change.

"We welcome the decision by Iraq's President to charge the PM nominee of the largest parliamentary bloc to

form a new cabinet," McGurk said, in a tweet.

"We congratulate Dr Haidar al-Abadi on the nomination and urge him to form a new cabinet and national program as swiftly as possible."

Meanwhile, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi denounced on Monday "crimes against humanity" committed by jihadists in Iraq against the minority Yazidi sect, demanding the perpetrators be brought to justice.

Iraqi politicians have warned of the dire plight of Yazidis stranded high up a mountain after Islamic State militants overran their lands.

The jihadists' advances in northern Iraq have also prompted an exodus of Christians.

Arabi "strongly denounced the crimes, killings, dispossession carried out by the terrorist (IS) against civilians and minorities in Iraq that have affected Christians in Mosul and Yazidis," he said in a statement.

Referring to reports of hundreds of Yazidis killed in the jihadist onslaught, Arabi said "these terrorist crimes amount to crimes against humanity that cannot be overlooked."

"The perpetrators must be held accountable and brought to international justice," the statement said.

Meanwhile, a State Department spokeswoman said Monday that the United States has begun urgently shipping arms and ammunition to the Iraqi Kurdish forces.

"We're working with the government of Iraq to increasingly and very quickly get urgently needed arms to the Kurds," Marie Harf told CNN.

"This includes the Iraqis providing their own weapons from their own stocks, and we're working to do the same thing from our stocks of weapons that we have."

Harf said the effort had been underway since last week, but did not say which U.S. agency was leading the effort or how many and what type of weapons had been sent.

The United States has a consulate and other facilities in Arbil, capital of Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region, and last week President Barack Obama announced air strikes to protect the city from the IS advance.

Efforts to support Kurdish peshmerga forces could complicated the United States' ties to the Iraqi government in Baghdad, which is also fighting the Islamic State but has tense relations with Arbil.

But Harf insisted that, in the current crisis, the two are working together.

"We have seen an unprecedented level of cooperation between the Iraqi forces and the Kurdish forces. We hadn't seen that in the past. They're helping each other out," Harf said.

"So any way we can get the very urgently needed arms to the Kurds we are actively working on," she said.

"We'll work with the government of Iraq to do that, but we believe again there is such an urgent situation that we need to do this."

In a related matter, a U.S. State Department official said earlier in the day that Iraqi Kurds are "being armed by various sources" in the fight against Islamic State jihadists.

The official added that "they are getting something rapidly" after the IS militants' strong gains in Kurdish regions in northern Iraq.

"They (Kurds) are getting some arms from various sources, they are being armed by various sources," said the official, who refused to name which countries were involved.

Asked if the United States was supplying weapons, he replied: "I can't go into that.

"There are a lot of discussions taking place between a lot of countries," he added.

"They are getting something rapidly."

The comments came as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Sydney for annual military talks with Australia.

Security sources said Monday that IS fighters had defeated Kurdish troops in the flashpoint Iraqi town of Jalawla, killing at least 10 in a fierce two-day battle.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Monday called on the European Union to "mobilize" to respond to appeals from Iraq's Kurds for arms to fight Islamic State jihadists.

In a letter to EU foreign affairs supremo Catherine Ashton, Fabius said: "It is crucial that the European Union mobilizes from today to respond to this appeal for help."

Fabius, who has just returned from a trip to Iraq where he met Iraqi Kurdish President Massud Barzani, explained that the latter had stressed "the urgent need for weapons and ammunition that would allow them to confront and beat the terrorist group Islamic State."

"I would be very grateful if you could urgently mobilize the member states and the European institutions to respond," Fabius wrote to Ashton.

"It seems to me that a special meeting of the council of (European) foreign ministers would be desirable," he added.

During his visit to Iraq on Sunday to oversee a shipment of humanitarian aid from France, Fabius said the Kurdish authorities "must receive, in a sure way, equipment that will allow them to defend themselves and to counterattack."

"We will look into that over the coming days but in liaison with the Europeans," Fabius told France 2 television.

France and Britain have pledged support for a U.S.-led operation helping Iraqi civilians -- many of them from the Yazidi minority -- who are fleeing a murderous advance by Islamic State (IS) militants.

While all three Western countries are providing emergency aid for the besieged civilians, the United States has also been conducting air strikes on IS positions.

Fabius reiterated his call for "all the political leaders in Iraq to hold talks to find a quick political solution that is acceptable to all parts of the country."

Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini also called earlier on Monday for a special EU meeting to discuss "Iraq, Gaza and Libya, three crises which concern Europe directly."

"We're not talking about military intervention but providing support, even of a military sort, to the Kurdish government," Mogherini said.

As well, European Union envoys were to meet Tuesday for an emergency meeting over the deepening crisis in Iraq, an EU diplomatic source said.

The move comes after Fabius sent a letter to EU foreign affairs supremo Catherine Ashton urging the 28-member bloc to mobilize to help Iraq's Kurds fight the Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

The EU source said Monday that envoys from member states would meet in Brussels "to coordinate as well as possible" a response to the latest brutal advances by the militants which has forced an exodus of Christians and Yazidis.

However the source said the meeting, officially called by Italy which holds the rotating EU presidency, is not expected to yield any decision.

Fabius, who has just returned from a trip to Iraq where he met Kurdish president Massud Barzani, said Barzani had stressed "the urgent need for weapons and ammunition that would allow them to confront and beat the terrorist group Islamic State".

Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini also called for a crisis meeting to evaluate "with our principle European partners more efficient means" of stopping the jihadist advance.

"We're not talking about military intervention but providing support, even of a military sort, to the Kurdish government," she told Italian radio.

France and Britain have pledged support for a US-led operation to help Iraqi civilians -- many of them from the Yazidi minority -- who are fleeing the IS militants.

The United States has also been conducting air strikes on IS positions.