The European Union has said that individual EU governments are free to send weapons to Iraqi Kurds battling Islamic militants provided they have the consent of Iraqi national authorities.

EU foreign ministers holding an emergency meeting in Brussels did not reach a united position to all send arms to the Iraqi Kurds but welcomed the decision by some EU governments, such as France, to do so.

The EU said it would also look at how to prevent Islamic State militants, who have overrun some oilfields in Syria and Iraq, benefiting from oil sales. The bloc also called for a swift investigation of human rights abuses in Syria and Iraq, saying some may be crimes against humanity.

Facing enormous pressure at home and abroad to step aside, Nuri al-Maliki dropped his bid for a third term as prime minister of Iraq yesterday and pledged support for his replacement, moderate Shia Haider al-Abadi.

Appearing on state television flanked by Mr Abadi and other Shia politicians, Mr Maliki spoke of the grave “terrorist” threat from Islamic State Sunni militants before giving up on his fight to stay on.

“I announce before you today, to ease the movement of the political process and the formation of the new government, the withdrawal of my candidacy in favour of brother Dr Haider al-Abadi,” said Mr Maliki.

Mr Abadi is seen as a far less polarising figure who has a chance of uniting Iraqis against Sunni insurgents who have captured large parts of the country in the north and west including Iraq’s largest dam and five oil fields.

Earlier US president Barack Obama claimed victory in the effort to rescue Yazidi refugees from Mount Sinjar. Speaking from Martha’s Vineyard in the US, Mr Obama declared the siege of Mount Sinjar over, crediting US drops of food and air strikes.

“I could not be prouder of the men and women of our military who carried out this humanitarian mission almost flawlessly,” the president said.

Mr Obama did not address the quickly shifting assessments of the situation on the mountain. For more than a week, US officials had described a grim situation involving thousands of refugees who would not be easily moved to safety.

That changed suddenly Wednesday afternoon, when a small team of US special forces personnel landed on the mountain and found that many of the refugees had already left.

Mr Obama acknowledged that initial determinations by the United States government had been that “many thousands” of Iraqi Yazidis were on the mountaintop. But he said that Wednesday’s assessment had found that “thousands of people had been evacuating safely each and every night.”

Still, he said the situation remained “dire” for many Iraqis who are threatened by Sunni militants in the northern part of the country, and he said US air strikes would continue indefinitely.

He said a more inclusive government would be a prerequisite for expanded US assistance in the broader fight against the Sunni militants.

A US military and civilian team of 16 people spent yesterday on top of Sinjar Mountain to assess conditions and identify how many Iraqis needed to be evacuated.

They reported that the number of people trapped was about 4,000 – far fewer than anticipated – and that US-supplied food and water had reached many of those in need in recent days. The last air drop was yesterday.

– (Reuters/New York Times/PA)