UN envoy says Iraq-Peshmerga cooperation is essential to security

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – During Wednesday’s UN Security Council meeting on the current situation in Iraq, UN Special Representative to Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert highlighted the importance of cooperation between Kurdish and Iraqi security forces in the nation’s disputed territories to prevent the return of the Islamic State.

“Also important is the rapid enactment of the Joint Security Mechanism. It will pave the way for joint operations along disputed boundaries,” she said, warning that “inadequate coordination will continue to give ISIL [Islamic State] a margin of manoeuvre.”

“In other words: enhanced operational performance on the ground between federal and Kurdish regional forces is not a nice-to-have, but a necessity.”

According to a recent Pentagon watchdog report published in August, the US-led coalition recognized the fact that continuing disagreements between Baghdad and Erbil over disputed territories “have allowed ISIS insurgents to exploit gaps between ISF [Iraqi Security Forces] and Peshmerga forces.”

This, read the report, allowed the extremist group’s fighters “to regroup and plan attacks in the region.”

During the last years of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), a joint security mechanism was established by the US army to coordinate security efforts in the disputed territories among the Peshmerga, ISF, and the coalition.

After the 2011 US pullout from Iraq, security coordination between the Peshmerga and ISF endured—until 2014, when the Islamic spread across much of country. Iraqi forces gave little resistance in many areas, most notably Mosul, and Baghdad asked the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to send Peshmerga into Kirkuk and other disputed areas to block militant fighters from seizing them.

During the anti-Islamic State campaign, the US-led coalition helped coordinate between the Peshmerga and ISF to defeat the terrorist organization. That coordination, however, collapsed in October 2017, when Iraqi forces, with support of Iran-backed militias, seized Kirkuk in response to the Kurdistan Region's independence referendum.

According to the Pentagon report, the US-led coalition confirmed that the ISF and the Peshmerga have recently made progress in ongoing planning of a joint security mechanism in order to effectively combat remnants of the Islamic State in the disputed territories.

However, the coalition added that on-the-ground cooperation “between the ISF and the Peshmerga remained limited and security gaps remained.” 

While Peshmerga leaders agree that the only way to defeat the Islamic State in these areas is through the implementation of joint security mechanisms, the Iraqi security forces “do not show the same level of interest in these mechanisms.”

While Baghdad’s lack of interest is attributed to “dynamics within the Iraqi government,” Peshmerga leaders warned that the lack of cooperation is giving the Islamic State room to rebuild itself, something both the US-led coalition and the UN have openly shared concerns about.

Hennis-Plasschaert also noted developments in recent months regarding the formation of both the federal and regional governments, remarking, “This has created a positive momentum to advance negotiations between Baghdad and Erbil, also demonstrated by the establishment of a High-Level Joint Committee.”

The envoy also stated that she was “very encouraged by the goodwill - demonstrated over the past months by all parties involved - to finally address the normalisation of the situation in Kirkuk.”

She has been critical about the nation's handling of the city of Sinjar (Shingal), from which thousands of Yezidi (Ezidi) families fled when it was overrun by the Islamic State in 2014. “Rival security actors and the lack of a unified administration remain the main obstacles for progress.”

Regarding Shingal, Hennis-Plasschaert called on Baghdad and Kurdish authorities to put aside their “partisan interests to bridge differences and to place - without further delay - the needs of the people first.”

Editing by John J. Catherine