End of US financial support for the Peshmerga forces of the Kurdistan Region

According to Kurdpress, the US-led coalition's financial support for the Peshmerga forces will be stopped with the expiration of the four-year memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Peshmerga and the coalition on Friday; an action that is being taken simultaneously with the completion of the integration process of the Peshmerga forces and the approaching end of the presence of coalition forces in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.According to New Region, a senior source in the Ministry of Peshmerga in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq announced that the Peshmerga forces received the last tranche of financial support from the US-led coalition on Thursday, and the memorandum of understanding that set the framework for US financial and military support for the reform and integration of the Peshmerga forces from 2022 will expire on Friday.

The four-year memorandum of understanding was signed between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the US Department of Defense with the aim of reforming the structure of the Peshmerga forces and integrating forces affiliated with the main Kurdish parties into a single military force.

A source in the Peshmerga Ministry told New Region that all clauses and provisions of the joint memorandum of understanding between the coalition and the Ministry of Peshmerga are being finalized, and the last tranche of the coalition’s financial support was distributed to the Peshmerga forces on Thursday.It is not yet clear whether the US and the Kurdistan Region will sign a similar agreement in the future. However, the BBC reported in August that US officials have informed the region’s leaders that the US government does not intend to extend an expiring security agreement supporting the Peshmerga forces.

Former US ambassador and former acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, Joy Hood, also told New Region in early September that US financial support for the KRG to integrate the Peshmerga forces was initially intended to be temporary and aimed at helping the Peshmerga Ministry integrate and integrate the various units.

The Peshmerga Ministry announced on September 10 that the process of integrating the Peshmerga forces had been completed after years of effort.The ministry also called on international allies to continue supporting the “Kurdistan Integrated Peshmerga Forces” in the new phase.

The process of reforming and integrating the Peshmerga forces, which was carried out under the supervision of the international coalition, followed the integration of the forces of the 80th Unit affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the 70th Unit affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan into the structure of the Peshmerga Ministry.

The end of the memorandum comes as the coalition forces are scheduled to completely withdraw from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region by September 30. These forces had been deployed in Iraq since 2014 at the invitation of the Baghdad government to combat ISIS.Meanwhile, the proposed US “Counter-ISIS Training and Equipping Fund” bill for 2027 does not include any funding for the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces, while the 2026 budget allocated about $61 million to support Kurdish forces. The 2027 bill allocates more than $118 million for Iraqi federal forces.