The UN Security Council today held talks on the unraveling crisis in Iraq, where Kurds seized control of the contested oil city of Kirkuk and Sunni Muslim militants pushed towards Baghdad.
The consultations behind closed doors began shortly after 11:30 am (1530 GMT) and were due to include a briefing by video link from the UN special representative to Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov.
Shortly before the meeting began, witnesses reported that Iraqi forces launched air strikes on militants occupying the palace compound of deposed leader Saddam Hussein in Tikrit.
"I don't know," Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters when asked what more the Security Council could do on Iraq before laying blame at the US-led invasion in 2003.
"It's obviously an extremely dramatic situation, clearly rooted in what happened in Iraq in 2003-2004. As far as we're concerned, we believe that the mission was not accomplished."
Yesterday the 15-member Council condemned in "the strongest terms" the takeover of Iraq's northern city of Mosul by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, blacklisted as a terror group.
They denounced "terrorist attacks that are being perpetrated against the people of Iraq in an attempt to destabilise the country and region" and expressed grave concerns for hundreds of thousands of people who have fled their homes.
Mladenov, a former Bulgarian foreign minister, heads the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, whose main task has been to help the government with political reconciliation efforts and elections.
He has previously emphasized the impact of the more than three-year civil war in Syria on deteriorating security in Iraq, and the spillover of extremists groups across the border into Iraq.
