Key ally of former Iraq PM questions Peshmerga Kobane mission

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Dispatching Peshmerga to the besieged Syrian town of Kobane is a political move and violates the Iraqi constitution, an Iraqi parliamentarian close to former Prime Minister Nouri-al Maliki claimed in an interview with Rudaw.

“The question is: will this force do anything for Kobane?” Ali al-Adeeb said by telephone from Baghdad Wednesday. “At the moment the force is very small. That’s why I think the deployment is nothing more than a political message,” he said.

Al-Adeeb is a prominent member of the State of Law coalition in the Iraqi Parliament and al-Maliki’s longstanding ally in government.

Approximately 150 Peshmerga soldiers have been deployed to the Syrian-Turkish border, where they are readying to cross into Kobane. Their mission is to provide artillery cover to the People’s Protection Unit (YPG), the Syrian-Kurdish force fighting Islamic State (ISIS) militants who have attacked the town since mid-September.

The plan is the result of weeks of negotiations between Turkish, Kurdish, and American officials.

But al-Adeeb insisted the move “directly violates Iraqi law and the constitution” because it was not approved by the federal government.

“The Peshmerga are ultimately an Iraqi force, and they need the approval of the Iraqi Parliament and the Iraqi government to do anything outside of the country’s borders, he said. “This is only natural because Iraq is a higher authority (than the Kurdistan Regional Government).”

The MP worried that the deployment could have domestic consequences within Iraq.  

“Peshmerga involvement in the Syrian war may cause us more problems,” he said. “The decisions the Kurdistan Region makes affects Iraq and Kurdistan, which after all is part of Iraq.”