Ministry of Peshmerga underlines necessity of Peshmerga reform in meeting with foreign advisors

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Ministry of Peshmerga held a high-level meeting with senior Western advisors on the issue of Peshmerga Reform on Tuesday. 

"We emphasized that the reform process is a necessity, and we all help and support reform, and we will make every effort to do so, and we will not stop and continue in this regard," said the Minister of Peshmerga Affairs Shoresh Ismail Abdulla in a Facebook post.

"We thanked the coalition's senior advisers for their continued cooperation and support for the Peshmerga ministry in speeding up the military reform process and creating a modern strong force," he added. 

During the meeting, UK, US, Dutch, and German military advisors from the Multi-National Advisory Group (MNAG) expressed their views on the current reform steps as well as the obstacles to the process.

The Netherlands, the US, the UK, and Germany form the unique MNAG that enthusiastically supports the project to establish a modern, effective, affordable, and accountable Peshmerga force under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

As part of those efforts, Kurdish leaders decided this year to put heavy support units of the KDP's Unit 80 and the PUK's Unit 70 under the command of the Ministry of Peshmerga (MOP). 

The MNAG earlier welcomed the move.

"With more and more brigades under the Ministry of Peshmerga, a good command and control is important to keep the span of control manageable," Military Advisor on Peshmerga Reform Col. Paul Vos told Kurdistan 24.

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"The proposal to create two divisional commands is a good first step," he said.