Iraq’s foreign minister: Iraq’s leaders must work together to deal with ‘mortal threat’

ATHENS, Greece – Iraq’s foreign minister says the fall of the major northern city of Mosul to insurgents must push the country’s leaders to work together and deal with the “serious, mortal threat” facing Iraq.

Hoshyar Zebari made the comments in Athens Wednesday on the sidelines of a meeting of European Union and Arab League foreign ministers. He said he assured his colleagues there would be “closer co-operation” between Baghdad and the Kurdistan regional government to push the insurgents out of Mosul.

Most of the city was seized Tuesday in a major assault by al-Qaida-inspired militants known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Zebari said they could be pushed back “by the Iraqi security forces in co-operation with the Kurdish peshmerga forces,” adding that the response had to come “soon.”