ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — An Iraqi government official has said the United States should respect the sovereignty of Iraq and be in full coordination with Baghdad when sending arms to Peshmerga forces. “Iraq and the United States of America have made an agreement to respect Iraq’s sovereignty,” Saad Hadisi, an Iraqi government spokesman, told Rudaw Sunday. “To arm any part of Iraq—whether it is Peshmerga forces or Hashd al-Shaabi—there must be mutual understanding and cooperation between the United States and the central government.” Hadisi’s comments followed a US trip by Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani that began last week. A US draft bill approved 60-2 in the House Armed Services Committee Thursday calls for at least 25 percent of US aid to Iraqi forces to be given to Kurdish Peshmerga, Sunni tribal militias and a force to be formed called the Iraqi Sunni National Guard. The bill is expected to be voted on in the House of Representatives this week. Barzani this week led a senior Kurdish delegation on a trip to Washington. This was the Kurdish leader’s first visit to the US in three years after he turned down an invitation to the Oval Office last May in protest of the US keeping the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan on tier 3 of the US terror group list. A number of Iraqi lawmakers have accused Barzani of violating the Iraqi Constitution in his unilateral visit to the United States, but Hadisi said these claims were merely the views of individual Iraqi lawmakers and not the central government as a whole. At an appearance at the Atlantic Council during his Washington DC trip on May 6, Barzani said Iraq’s Kurds would hold a referendum on independence from Baghdad following the defeat of Islamic State forces on the battlefield. The Kurdish cause has been well received in Washington, and his visit exceeded expectations, Barzani told Rudaw Friday in an exclusive interview.
