Peshmerga await Baghdad's decision on redeployment to disputed territories

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Top Peshmerga officials said that, after US and UK delegations have urged the resumption of joint Iraqi-Kurdish deployments in disputed territories, his forces await a decision from Baghdad.

Secretary General of the Ministry of Peshmerga General Jabbar Yawar said in a press conference on Tuesday that separate US and UK delegations have met with his ministry to discuss the need for the presence of Peshmerga forces in areas outside those administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

In the meetings, Yawar said, officials from all sides agreed that security in the disputed territories had substantially deteriorated since Peshmerga were pushed from the areas after the Kurdistan Region's September independence referendum.

Due to instability caused by increased activity by the Islamic State (IS), he explained, the Coalition has requested the reactivation of the previous joint security plan in place between 2011 and 2014 that utilized both Iraqi and Peshmerga forces in the provinces of Diyala, Kirkuk, and Nineveh.

The KRG's Chief of Staff of the Peshmerga Forces Jamal Eminki told Kurdistan 24 in an interview that he is awaiting the Iraqi government’s decision regarding the redeployment.

He reiterated US and UK support of the plan and said he would hold further talks with officials from the Iraqi federal government to reach a final deal.

Maj. Gen. Maan al-Saadi, the Baghdad-appointed head of security for Kirkuk confirmed while speaking to local media that talks about the redeployment of the Peshmerga are ongoing, but that no decision had yet been made. "There has not been any green light from the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces about it yet," said al-Saadi, using an official title for Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi.

The KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, in a meeting with a high-level US military delegation in Erbil last week, expressed his government’s readiness to cooperate with the Iraqi government in the disputed territories.

Editing by John J. Catherine