Reuters/Arbil
Iran has supplied weapons and ammunition to Iraqi Kurdish forces, Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani said yesterday at a joint press conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif in Arbil, capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region.
The direct arming of Kurdish forces is a contentious issue because some Iraqi politicians suspect Kurdish leaders have aspirations to break away from the central government completely. The move could also be seen by some as a prelude to Iran’s taking a more direct role in a broader Iraqi conflict.
“We asked for weapons and Iran was the first country to provide us with weapons and ammunition,” Barzani said.
Militants from the Islamic State have clashed with Kurdish peshmerga fighters in recent weeks and taken control of some areas on the periphery of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Earlier in the day, a car bomb was detonated in a mainly Shia district of eastern Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 28, police and medical sources said. The bombing in the New Baghdad neighbourhood followed a series of blasts in the Iraqi capital on Monday that killed more than 20 people.
The Islamic State, which controls large swathes of northern and western Iraq, claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in the New Baghdad neighbourhood on Monday. It said in a statement the bombing was carried out as revenge for an attack against a Sunni mosque in Diyala on Friday, which killed 68 and wounded dozens.
The Iranian foreign minister held talks with Barzani yesterday, one day after visiting senior Shia clerics in southern Iraq. Zarif acknowledged giving military assistance to Iraqi security forces but said the co-operation did not include deploying ground troops in the country.
“We have no military presence in Iraq,” Zarif said. “We do have military co-operation with both the central government and the Kurds in different arenas.”
Neither Zarif nor Barzani gave any details on whether weapons supplied to Kurdish peshmerga forces had been routed through the central government or given directly to Kurdish forces. Prime Minister-designate Haider al-Abadi said on Monday that arms given to the peshmerga had been routed through the central government.
In Washington, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said that Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Canada and Albania had committed to providing “arms and equipment” to Kurdistan.
“Operations have already begun and will accelerate in the coming days with more nations also expected to contribute,” Hagel said in a statement.
The United States has also been supplying a small amount of weaponry through intelligence channels.
Barzani shakes hands with Zarif in Arbil yesterday.
