Top US diplomat in Erbil discusses Peshmerga unification with reformist party

Salim Ibrahim

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The top US diplomat in Erbil met the son of a deceased Kurdish reformist party leader to discuss reforms in the Kurdistan Region on Sunday. 

US Consul General Steve Fagin sat down with Chia Nawshirwan, the son of the late leader of the Gorran party Nawshirwan Mustafa, in Sulaimani and discussed unifying the Kurdish Peshmerga military forces, according to the party. 

“In the meeting, the reform process in Kurdistan and unification of Peshmerga forces were discussed,” Shunas Sherko, a member of Gorran’s diplomacy office who was present at the meeting, told Rudaw.

Units of the Peshmerga, the official military force of the Kurdistan Region, are divided into factions controlled by either the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) or the second largest party in the Kurdistan Region parliament the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Gorran has no Peshmerga forces, but has asked for security posts in the KRG in the near past. The US is a main international backer of the Peshmerga, who was active in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS).

The head of the US Consulate in Erbil endorsed the KRG’s efforts to unify the Peshmerga in the meeting, according to Sherko.

Gorran has 12 seats in the Kurdistan Region parliament and also holds some other key positions in the government, including vice president of the Kurdistan Region, minister of finance and economy, minister of trade, and minister of social affairs.

The Kurdistan Region held parliamentary elections on September 30, 2018, with the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) winning 45 seats in the 111-seat legislature. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) won 21 seats, and the Change Movement (Gorran) 12.
No party won an outright majority to form the government alone, forcing the KDP to negotiate a coalition deal with its largest rivals - the PUK and Gorran.

A new KRG cabinet was finally formed in July following months of negotiations between local political parties over power sharing.