The KDP and the PUK, have for decades disagreed over a variety of issues, sometimes leading to major unrests in the Region. Disputes in Erbil and Baghdad have escalated in recent years over official positions, budgeting, and income.
"It is definitely more difficult because the political tensions are there," Jaco Beerends, Netherlands’ consul general in the Kurdistan Region, told Rudaw’s Hawraz Golpy about the Peshmerga reformation process, adding "now there is a pause in the system."
Beerends stated that he believes the KDP and the PUK understand that the reforms are a necessity and are willing to work towards that end.
"Both parties will see that in the end this is in their interest."
Although the Peshmerga forces are under the authority of the Peshmerga ministry, the force’s two largest units are divided among the KDP and the PUK.
Unit 70 forces are affiliated with the PUK and Unit 80 forces are controlled by the KDP making up the majority of the Peshmerga forces, numbering over 100,000 troops.
Dutch forces have been providing training for Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi soldiers as a member of the Global Coalition that was formed in September 2014 after Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(ISIS) murderous Moslems took control of large swathes of northern Iraq and Syria.