ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Senior military officials among both Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi forces highlighted the need to cooperate and coordinate efforts to combat the ongoing threats of terrorism in the country, and rejected reports of a deal to allow the redeployment of Peshmerga to disputed areas.
Both sides held a high-level meeting on Monday in Erbil, which was the first official meeting between Erbil and Baghdad following the Oct. 16 clashes in the disputed territories in 2017, Sarbast Lezgin, the deputy Minister of Peshmerga, told Kurdistan 24 on Wednesday.
He said the meeting was the first step to normalize relations and develop cooperation in areas where Islamic State sleeper cells take advantage of security vacuums.
Lezgin noted that two high-level and several low-level joint committees had been created to facilitate military and security coordination and cooperation between the two sides in the contact lines which stretch from Diyala to Nineveh province.
The US-led coalition had long encouraged both sides to hold meetings and coordinate their military efforts to combat the Islamic State, and now closely monitors the meetings taking place between both sides, according to the Kurdish official.
“Peshmerga forces are part of the Iraqi defense system. We have good coordination, and soon committees will convene to protect the entire territory of Iraq,” Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Defense Ministry, Osman al-Ghanmi, told Kurdistan 24 on Wednesday.