[RUDAW.NET] The United States has reassured Iraq's Kurds they will have the weapons they need in the war with ISIS, promising the arms will continue to be expedited by Baghdad, a member of the Kurdish presidential delegation in Washington told Rudaw.
The official, speaking to Rudaw on background and refusing to be named or directly quoted, said US officials had told Kurdish President Masoud Barzani's delegation that Baghdad would be courting problems with Washington if it tried to delay weapons funneled to Erbil through the Iraqi central government.
He said that US weapons deliveries had been stepped up, and that currently the clearance process for arms arriving in Baghdad for the Kurds is about 48 hours. Washington has been given a list of weapons the Peshmerga say they need, he disclosed, adding that the US has avoided direct arms shipments to the Kurds over legal issues.
With Kurdistan's Peshmerga forces acknowledged by the US as their most reliable allies on the ground, there has been a growing rift between US leaders and politicians over whether the Kurds should be armed directly.
On Thursday, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said that the Pentagon opposes directly arming Kurdish forces and Sunni tribes in Iraq.
Some congressmen and senators have introduced a bill that authorizes direct shipment of weapons for Kurds. A provision of the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) asks that 25 percent of the budget to Iraq be directly delivered to Kurdish and Sunni forces. |