ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Kurdish presidential Chief of Staff Fuad Hussein said on Sunday that a meeting has been proposed between Erbil, Ankara and Washington to discuss the anti-Islamic State (ISIS) strategy.
“There is a proposal for a tripartite meeting between the United States, Turkey and the Kurdistan Region,” Hussein told Rudaw. “That meeting has been suggested in order to discuss cooperation between these three parties against the forces of Daesh, the terrorists.”
Hussein said that the meeting will be held in the Kurdistan Region.
“This meeting will of course have to be with the knowledge of the Iraqi government,” he added.
Speaking to Rudaw TV, Hussein said that the question of Mosul is under study and that the Kurdish Peshmerga will assist the Iraqi army when the time comes.
“The subject of the liberation of Mosul has to be studied well,” said President Masoud Barzani’s chief of staff. “And we must help the Iraqi army, but the problem is that the Iraqi army is not ready for this yet. It is not ready to be part of that battle, and by not being ready I mean militarily.”
Hussein hinted that the Iraqi army might be ready for Mosul once it is done fighting ISIS in “In Ramadi, Tikrit, Baiji and other areas.”
He added, “Whenever that battle is over, it is likely that part of the Iraqi army would be ready and the Peshmerga would then be their partners, too. Then we can, with the assistance and alliance of other countries, liberate Mosul.”
