France will provide arms to Kurdish forces fighting the Islamic State (formerly ISIS) in Iraq, President François Hollande's office said in a statement on Wednesday.

The arms will be sent in the coming hours, the Wall Street Journal reported at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, and that Iraq's central government welcomes the aid.

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Hollande's office said in their statement, "France intends to play an active role by providing, along with its partners and in liaison with the new Iraqi authorities, all the assistance required."

France has been one of the main supporters of sending aid, trying for days to gather European Union foreign ministers in an emergency meeting to decide on a plan of action, Al Jazeera America reports. France has already provided 18 tons of humanitarian aid, with another 20 tons set to arrive Wednesday.

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said she wants an emergency meeting to convene this week, and is organizing with foreign officials to make it happen. The humanitarian and arms aid is being sent to Mt. Sinjar, where an estimated 30,000 Yazidi refugees are hiding from Islamic State forces.

More and more countries are joining the fight against the Islamic State. The United States committed 130 marines and special operations forces to the Sinjar area to create a stable pathway to evacuate the refugees, and have also sent weapons to the Pershmerga, the name for the Kurdish forces.

The United Kingdom plans to join in the US effort for evacuating refugees.

The Islamic State crisis comes at a bad time for a politically unstable Iraq. Prime Minister of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki is not willing to step down to his successor Haider al-Abadi. Maliki has been accused of creating an atmosphere fertile to the Islamic State's rise.

Both the US and Iran are in agreement that Maliki needs to be removed, the BBC reports. Maliki's Shia constituents are increasingly disapproving and Maliki in power risks a worsening of the Islamic State crisis.

TagsISIS, Iraq, Yazidi