SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdistan Region’s Minister of Peshmerga Shorish Ismael called on the United States to increase its funding for the Peshmerga forces, the ministry said in a statement.
Minister Ismael met with USAID official Colonel Voorhees and an accompanying delegation on Tuesday (February 23) to discuss the issue of financial entitlements for the Peshmerga forces, the statement read.
Ismael called for the continuation and expansion of support and financial aid to all the Peshmerga forces, the ministry said.
The minister said “the U.S. funding and financial benefits should include all Peshmerga forces in a manner that takes into account equality and fairness in the distribution of salaries for all forces without any discrimination,” the ministry said.
U.S. Col. Voorhees pledged to “expedite the request”, according to the Peshmerga ministry’s statement.
The United States has supplied military and financial aid to the Peshmerga forces since 2014, following the fight against Islamic State (ISIS) militants, overran large swathes of Iraqi territory.
The U.S. paid $20 million to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) every month to pay salaries of some brigades of the Peshmerga forces.
Ismael’s press office said on Sunday that the joint brigades of the Peshmerga forces would get paid salaries of three months in February.
“The financial aid will be deposited into the bank account of the Peshmerga ministry from this month so that the ministry would distribute it as payment,” a source in the ministry told Esta Media Network.
