Peshmerga support, anti-ISIS campaign top talks with PM Barzani, US diplomat
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Training and support for Peshmerga, as well as the continued security and stability of the Kurdistan Region, led discussions between Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Nechirvan Barzani and a senior US diplomat on Thursday.
Prime Minister Barzani received US Deputy Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, Amb. William Roebuck, and an accompanying delegation in Erbil, a KRG statement read.
Both sides “discussed the political and security situation of the Kurdistan Region,”as well as the US-led coalition’s continued training of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, it added.
According to the statement, Barzani and Roebuck also spoke about the importance of “security cooperation with Baghdad” to face the threats of an Islamic State reemergence in the country.
Indeed, although Iraq announced a military defeat of the extremist group in December 2017, the so-called Islamic State continues to carry out insurgency-style attacks in formerly liberated areas like Mosul and even places it never controlled like the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
Senior KRG officials have repeatedly warned of an Islamic State resurgence, if the root causes which led to the terror group’s rise are not addressed.
Read More: Kurdish security chief, US diplomat discuss anti-ISIS campaign
Prime Minister Barzani and Roebuck also discussed the political process in Iraq, following the May 2018 elections, as well as the improvement of ties between the KRG and the federal government in Baghdad, the KRG statement noted.
Relations between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq have significantly improved since a fallout in the aftermath of Kurdistan’s historic independence referendum in September 2017.
Baghdad rejected the results of the vote and imposed punitive measures on Erbil, including an international flight ban on its airports, while it even attacked the disputed areas, into which the Kurdish Peshmerga had advanced to protect them in the face of the Islamic State’s assault and the collapse of the Iraq army.
“Political and security developments in the wider region, particularly in Syria and relations with neighboring countries were also discussed,” the statement concluded.
Roebuck is a career diplomat. He has previously served in the US embassies in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, and he received the Ryan C. Crocker Award for Outstanding Leadership in Expeditionary Diplomacy for his work in Tripoli.
Roebuck was in Baghdad last week, where he addressed the Global Coalition’s Stabilization Working Group “to highlight the importance of stabilization as a means to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS,” according to a State Department press release. It was the first time that Iraq hosted such a meeting.
Editing by Laurie Mylroie