Barzani’s remarks came during a meeting with US Army Lt. Gen. Michael D. Barbero, commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq (MNSTC-I), over the weekend, according to a report on an official Web page of the regional presidency of the Iraqi Kurdish region.
“After [July] parliamentary elections and an agreement between the two parties, Kurdistan has decided to establish a unified army whose nucleus is composed of peshmerga,” or Kurdish fighters, Barzani said. “This is the request of our people and it is one of my dreams to see a unified army of Kurdistan,” he said, noting their need for US help in such an action.
The peshmerga linked to Barzani’s Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) has an estimated 55,000 soldiers, including 30,000 reserves, while President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) has 18,000. The two sets of Kurdish forces fought each other in the 1990s, claiming about 3,000 lives. Their relations have since improved and they now have a joint government based in Arbil.
Barbero, meanwhile, said that the US Military will continue in its efforts to support the Iraqi military forces, playing its role in bringing the Iraqi federal forces and the Kurdish forces closer together.
Benzer Haberler 
Diplomacy
