SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The US-led Global Coalition to defeat ISIS warned the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) that it would halt its support on the occasion of the Peshmerga Ministry’s failure to fully implement the reforms.
Major General Matthew McFarlane, the outgoing commanding general of the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve said, “The most recent review identified that the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs has made some progress on the implementation of the MoU milestones.”
“But the absence of a Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs minister has weakened the institution and stalled progress on efforts to unify and professionalize the force,” McFarlane added.
“The inability of the KRG to achieve objectives, key results, or milestones outlined in the MoU could negatively affect the Department of Defense’s ability to continue providing security assistance to the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs,” he noted.
“If we continue to see a lack of progress, we will consider taking appropriate action to ensure we are investing in something that has a viable future.”
McFarlane’s words were amid a press conference in Erbil on Sunday amid the ongoing controversial reforms within the Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Peshmerga that have been long divided between the Region’s two dominant parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
The Coalition calls for a more efficient, modern, and non-partisan fighting force within the Peshmerga Ministry.
So far, the KDP and PUK have failed to fully reunify the forces and the process to do so has been impaired by the inter-party conflicts with each side accusing one other of slowing the reforms.
Consequently, US diplomats working in Iraqi Kurdistan have raised the alarm about the dangers if the KRG fails to unify the forces, and have expressed dissatisfaction several times.
PUK President Bafel Talabani on Saturday stated that the US-proposed reforms within Peshmerga Ministry should be fair and far from specific person and party interests.
“The PUK is supporting the reorganization of the Peshmerga and it wants the establishment of a national solid force for the Kurdistan,” he said.
