Iraq
Iraq’s former Speaker of Parliament Mohammed al-Halbousi in Washington, DC, on March 28, 2019. File photo: AP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The former speaker of the Iraqi parliament has criticized the arming of “local” forces with heavy weaponry, saying they could be used in internal conflicts over disputed areas.
“We categorically reject the arming of local forces… (with advanced heavy artillery),” Mohammed al-Halbousi said on Saturday in a post on X.
The influential Sunni politician from Anbar did not name any specific armed faction in the country.
Halbousi warned that this could jeopardize “national communal security in general and in Nineveh and Kirkuk provinces specifically, if those weapons are misused…in ethnic or factional conflict in the future.”
“This type of weaponry should be exclusively in the hands of the Iraqi army, whose capabilities and resources we continuously advocate to strengthen,” Halbousi said.
In August, the United States delivered a batch of military aid to the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces. Washington has provided the Peshmerga with several rounds of military aid over the years.
The Peshmerga, despite efforts by Washington and several European countries, remain a highly partisan force in organization and loyalty, predominantly to the ruling KDP and rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
Khalida Khalil, spokesperson for the Barzani Headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), said on Sunday that the Peshmerga forces are not sectarian, so it is unjustified to reject their arming.
“They have not fought to encroach on the rights of other components, nor have they ever called for war. They are constitutional, regular forces that defend the rights of their people and the rights of all components without discrimination,“ Khalil said in a post on X.
The Peshmerga ministry said, when receiving the batch in August, it included “a number of howitzer artillery.“
The US consulate in Erbil said at the time that the military aid provided to the Peshmerga will bolster their security capabilities to ensure “the enduring Iraqi-led defeat of ISIS [the Islamic State].”
Baghdad and Kurdish forces have formed joint brigades and launched joint operations against ISIS to secure disputed areas which are claimed by the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Nonetheless, the extremists still have exploited security gaps in and around Nineveh, Kirkuk, Salahaddin, and Diyala provinces.
When ISIS seized swathes of the Iraqi and Syria territories in 2014, Peshmerga played a key role in driving the extremist group out of the areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, especially Kirkuk. The US-led global coalition provided Peshmerga and Iraqi forces with military assistance to defeat ISIS territorially in 2017.
Kirkuk was jointly administered until 2014, when Peshmerga forces took full control after Iraqi troops withdrew during the ISIS offensive. The Kurds held Kirkuk until October 16, 2017, when Iraqi forces retook control and expelled the Peshmerga following the Kurdish independence referendum.
The Iraqi constitution recognizes federal autonomy like the Kurdistan Region and its right to provide security with regional forces like the Peshmerga as part of the national defense apparatus.
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