PM:03:31:20/09/2022
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SULAIMANI— Peshmerga
Secretary-General Lieutenant Colonel Bakhtiar Mohammed said the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) "lack a clear mutual
vision for the future of the Peshmerga forces”, impeding progress in unifying
them.
In an interview with the
Kurdish service of Voice of America (VOA) on September 19, Mohammed said that
"the progress in unifying Peshmerga forces is slow and is not up to the
expectations of the Peshmerga forces and the people of Kurdistan."
Most of the peshmerga forces
are divided along party lines between the KDP and PUK.
While the US-led coalition
forces have been putting pressure on the two parties to unify the forces,
progress is rather slow.
Mohammed added another issue
is the lack of funding and collaboration between the Peshmerga forces and the
Iraqi army.
He said the coalition forces
are helping the Peshmerga Ministry in unifying Peshmerga forces and
"motivating us to arm the forces, reactivate and train them to be able to
fight the Islamic State (IS).
He explained that the
coalition forces "encourage us to cooperate with the Iraqi army and
international coalition to fight IS."
In August 2021, Kurdistan
Region Vice President Sheikh Jaafar Mustafa the Peshmerga forces will likely be
"completely” unified under the control of the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG) Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs in less than a year.
(NRT Digital Media)