Support for the rule of law was requested by Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who was president of Iraq's interim government. EUJUST LEX was created by decision 6328/05 of the Council of the European Union; it started operations in July 2005, with Stephen White as the head of mission. The mandate has been extended repeatedly; the most recent extension, approved in June 2012 by a meeting of 27 EU ambassadors, continues until 31 December 2013.[3] It was initially headquartered in Brussels, for security reasons, with a small liaison office in the British embassy in Baghdad;[4] but this moved to Baghdad in early 2011.