Kurdistan PM-Designate talks reform, training of Peshmerga in meeting with US military official
On Tuesday, Kreuder participated in a meeting with officials from the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs (MoPE) on the issue of Peshmerga reform. That meeting was attended by top US and British diplomats in Erbil—US Consul General Steven Fagin and UK Consul General Martyn Warr—along with representatives of other members of the Global Coalition against the Islamic State.
The US, UK, and Germany, which are leading members of that coalition, formally known as Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR), have prepared a reform project for the Peshmerga Ministry.
Read more: Coalition works with Peshmerga Ministry for reform and unity of Peshmerga forces
For its part, the Ministry has established a Reform Board, which is working to implement a roadmap for change. That roadmap includes 31 different projects that would consolidate the Peshmerga into a more efficient and effective national defense force.
A key objective of the reforms is to move beyond the current division of Peshmerga forces between the two major Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), while institutionalizing a unified command structure.
The meeting attendees “discussed in depth the reform process and its effective implementation, as well as insisting that the [Kurdistan Region’s] Presidency and Government make the reform and reorganization of the Peshmerga Forces one of their main priorities over their next four years of office,” an MoPE statement read.