ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - President of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani on Monday chaired a meeting between a high-level delegation of the US-led coalition and the Peshmerga ministry in which efforts to reform and unite the Peshmerga were discussed.
The meeting was attended by Major General Matthew McFarlane, commander of the coalition and Irvin Hicks Jr., the US consul general in Erbil, and “discussed the reorganization and reform of the Peshmerga forces and assessed the stages of implementation of the plan within the framework of the agreement between the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs and the US Department of Defense,” according to a statement from President Barzani’s office.
Although the Peshmerga forces are nominally under the authority of the ministry, control of the two largest units is divided between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Western allies are helping the Peshmerga to unite under one command and modernise, with the US-led global coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) overseeing the process.
During the meeting, Barzani “appreciated the continuous support of the coalition partners to the Peshmerga in all fields and during the different stages, and stressed the need to accelerate any steps to reunite the Peshmerga and to remove obstacles to the process of unification, and expressed his readiness for any assistance and support in this regard.”
In March, a senior official from the Peshmerga ministry said that major reforms within the forces are moving forward “very slowly” due to ongoing tensions between the KDP and PUK.
Relations between the KDP and PUK have gone through rocky periods in recent years. Tensions over finances, transparency in the provinces under their influence, and the assassination of a former PUK colonel in Erbil have hindered major reform from materializing in the Region.
Washington has maintained a strong relationship with the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. The US has provided the Kurdish Peshmerga with several rounds of military aid over the years, namely in the fight against ISIS beginning in 2014.
