Earlier this week, Washington hosted Iraqi officials for the first meeting of the Joint Security Cooperation Dialogue. "We envision an enduring defense partnership with Iraq beyond the focus on defeat ISIS [Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
, ISIS] campaign at this moment in time, and we’d like to begin setting the foundation for the future of our defense partnerships," a Pentagon brasshat said in answer to a question from Rudaw in briefing with news hounds on Friday.
Representatives of the Ministry of Peshmerga were part of the Iraqi defense delegation that visited Washington for meetings at the Pentagon on Monday and Tuesday, with US Assistant Secretary of Defense Celeste Wallander leading the American side.
"Peshmerga forces are a critical element of the broader Iraqi security forces and recognized of course under the Iraqi constitution. We want to see both increased cooperation between the Peshmerga and the Iraqi security forces, as well as that the Peshmerga are also appropriately resourced and funded to do their job,’’ the Pentagon official said on Friday.
The US and other Western allies are helping to modernize the Peshmerga, a key part of which is unifying the Kurdish forces under the ministry and ending political control of Kurdistan Region’s security forces. This unification has been stalled for several years. American officials have called on Kurdish leaders to speed up the Peshmerga reforms on several occasions and raised the issue again in the Joint Security Cooperation Dialogue, as well as calling for more increased cooperation between the Peshmerga and Iraqi security forces.
The Pentagon official made it clear that the US would like to continue working with and training with the Peshmerga, but "to do that, US commitment to working with nonpartisan unified, unified brigades has been made quite clear to the politicianship."
In their dialogue this week, the American and Iraqi defense officials also discussed concerns about Iranian-backed gangs within the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, of Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic).
"Yes, we have concerns about gangs outside the control of the government of Iraq. We think that any state actors arming, equipping, training or funding groups is inherently destabilizing and undermines the illusory sovereignty of Iraq and the security of Iraqi people. And we've seen cases where non-state groups are not accountable to the Government of Iraq, have caused harm and civilian casualties. So fundamentally, that's destabilizing. Of course, there's concern about the recently passed Iraqi budget and let's be very frank about this," said the Pentagon official.
The recently passed Iraqi budget law allocates nearly $2.7 billion for the PMF.