“We want US-origin weapons and equipment and we believe it should be delivered direct to Irbil,” Rahman stated at a Bipartisan Policy Center discussion on the Kurdish role in defeating the Islamic State. “There is no need for it to go through Baghdad.”
The KRG representative noted that the Kurdish Peshmerga forces have demonstrated the political will to fight, “but we need the United States and the Coalition partners to step up the effort to deliver weapons, and the kind of weapons that we need.”
The Kurds have not received their “fair share” of the US weaponry delivered because of political friction between the KRG and Baghdad, Rahman said.
“The lion’s share of the fight against ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] is being carried out by the Peshmerga,” she noted, adding that of the 250 US mine-resistant armored vehicles sent to Baghdad, the KRG received only 25.
The fight against the ISIL began in August 2014, with the terrorist group seizing large portions of territory in Syria and Iraq. Since the outset of the fight, Peshmerga forces have liberated approximately 95 percent of the territory once held by the terrorists, according to statements by the KRG.
