Cameron resists calls for military action

British Prime Minister David Cameron cut short his holiday to return to Britain to chair a meeting to discuss the Iraq crisis, but resisted calls to intervene there militarily and ruled out recalling parliament for now.

Mr Cameron returned, as Iraq’s new prime minister- designate won endorsements from the United States and Iran. He also called on Iraqi leaders to end feuds that have let jihadists seize much of the country.

Several British lawmakers have called on Mr Cameron to recall parliament from its summer recess to discuss Iraq, while at least two former senior military figures have said Britain should follow the US lead and intervene militarily against Islamist fighters there on humanitarian grounds.

But Mr Cameron made clear that Britain’s response would for now be limited to a humanitarian effort to help thousands of people belonging to the Yazidi religious sect who have been driven into the arid Sinjar mountain range by Sunni Muslim militants.

“We need a plan to get these people off that mountain and get them to a place of safety,” Cameron said, speaking after the meeting.

“I can confirm that detailed plans are now being put in place and are underway and that Britain will play a role in delivering them.”

The last time Mr Cameron tried to sign Britain up to potential military strikes in the Middle East, against Syria in August 2013, he lost a parliamentary vote.

The defeat was attributed in part to the bitter legacy of Britain’s involvement in the 2003 Iraq war, which did much to turn British public opinion against foreign military interventions.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he will not relinquish power until a federal court rules on what he claims is a “constitutional violation” by the president to replace him with a member of his own party.

The embattled premier has grown increasingly isolated, with Iraqi politicians and much of the international community lining up behind prime minister-designate, Haider al-Abadi, a member of Mr Al-Maliki’s Shiite Dawa party.

Mr Al-Abadi was picked by President Fouad Massoum to form a new government that can unite the country in the face of an onslaught by Sunni militants.

“Holding on (to the premiership) is an ethical and patriotic duty to defend the rights of voters,” Mr Al-Maliki said in his weekly address to the nation, insisting his actions were meant to “protect the state”.

Mr Al-Maliki has vowed legal action, saying he would go to the courts to prove the president’s choice of Mr Al-Abadi was “a coup” against the constitution.

As international support mounts for Mr Al-Abadi, Iraqi troops imposed heightened security in Baghdad.

Widespread discontent with Mr Al-Maliki’s divisive rule has reached the point where both Saudi Arabia and Iran — regional rivals often bitterly divided over Iraq — have expressed support for Mr Al-Abadi.

The United States, the European Union and the United Nations have also expressed support for new leadership.

Since June, Iraq has been facing an onslaught by ISIS and allied Sunni militants across much of the country’s north and west.

Thousands of people have been killed and more than 1.5 million displaced by the violence.

The militant advance slowed as they approached Baghdad and other majority Shiite areas, but the capital still sees near daily attacks.

The Islamic State’s onslaught has uprooted thousands of members of Iraq’s Yazidi religious minority after the militants overran their town of Sinjar earlier this month.

The Islamic extremists view the Yazidis as apostates and have vowed to kill all those who do not convert.

Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott has held open the possibility of sending a combat force to Iraq while France said it would send arms to Iraqi Kurdish forces.