Italy calls for 'coordinated action' on Iraq, Ukraine

Mogherini speaks out ahead of extraordinary EU council

(ANSA) - Rome, August 14 - Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini on Thursday called on the European Union to adopt a coordinated front on the crises in Iraq and Ukraine. "Now for common, coordinated action," Mogherini said via the Italian foreign ministry's Twitter account before an extraordinary council of EU foreign ministers on Friday. Italy and France had called for Friday's meeting, above all over the humanitarian crisis in northern Iraq, where jihadist Islamic State (ISIS) militias are driving hundreds of thousands of members of religious minorities from their homes.

On Wednesday Mogherini called for a "strong" EU response to the various flash points, including Libya and Gaza as well as Iraq and Ukraine. "There must be not only a joint declaration on all the crisis areas, but a decision on a joint, strong, and coordinated action," the minister said Thursday.