Is Washington Creating a Peshmerga Problem?

Seth J. Frantzman

Security, Middle East

The Peshmerga are poised to play a more critical role in U.S.-Middle East affairs. But Washington has been neglecting its key ally in favor of countries that have more clout on the world stage.

The road north from Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq, is festooned with construction equipment for work on a large modernization project. Earthworks have been churned up, bridges are under construction, like the new multilane span across the Great Zab River. It is part of an artery for trade heading north to Dohuk and Turkey. The construction presents a contrast with the poorer farmers who line the road to sell tomatoes, tea and fish.

The contrast is symbolic of the autonomous Kurdistan region as a whole. In Erbil the pulsating nightlife and broad ring roads that swaddle the city present a picture of prosperity and stability in the new Iraq that has emerged after the war on the Islamic State. However, there are lingering problems such as disputes between Erbil and Baghdad over budgets and arms for the Kurdish security forces, called Peshmerga. There are vacuums between the defensive lines where the Peshmerga and Iraqi security forces are supposed to meet and where the Islamic State remnants have found small ungoverned spaces to exploit. Most of all, there is the strategic position of the region, politically closer to the United States and Ankara and wary of the rising power of Iran and Iranian-backed political and paramilitary groups that dominate parts of Iraq.

A multiday visit to the region revealed the hurdles the KRG faces two years after it held an independence referendum that was condemned by its neighbors and largely ignored or opposed by the international community. Under the new and younger leadership of President Nechirvan Barzani and Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, the region has focused less on the national dreams of independence and more on the pragmatic day-to-day issue of economic revival and working with Baghdad to secure the region’s demands under Iraq’s 2005 Constitution.