ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) remains committed to its advisory role for Iraqi forces, an official from the defence alliance told Rudaw on Saturday.
"The NATO mission in Iraq is a non-combat advisory and capacity-building mission to assist Iraq in building more sustainable, transparent, inclusive and effective security institutions and forces, so that they themselves can stabilize their country, fight terrorism and prevent the return of ISIS," the official said in a written statement when asked about the future of NATO’s training of Kurdish Peshmerga forces.
NATO withdrew its forces from Iraq in late March following the outbreak of war between the US, Israel and Iran on February 28, a conflict that escalated US President Donald Trump's frustrations over allies' unwillingness to assist operations in the Strait of Hormuz.
Established in October 2018 at Baghdad’s request, the NATO Mission Iraq is a non-combat advisory mission aimed at strengthening Iraq’s defense and security institutions. According to NATO, it seeks to help Iraq develop more sustainable, transparent, and effective security forces capable of countering terrorism, particularly the ISIS threat.
The mission includes personnel from all NATO member states, as well as partner countries Austria and Australia.
Niyaz Mustafa contributed to this article.