“During his visit to Iraq General Joseph Votel will also travel to Kurdistan and meet top officials and authorities in the Peshmerga Ministry,” said Yawar, who declined to reveal when exactly Votel will visit.
“This is a military issue and we will not release more information,” he added.
General Votel arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday and met Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Iraq’s Defense Minister, Khalid al-Obaidi.
His visit comes a mere day after a Memorandum of Understanding on military cooperation between the Kurdistan Region and the United States was signed in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, on Tuesday.
This is a landmark agreement for the Kurdistan Region since it essentially forms a partnership with the United States that is independent of Baghdad. The memorandum aims to help the Kurdish Peshmerga in the war against the Islamic State (ISIS) and in the upcoming liberation of Mosul, in which they will play a supporting role.
