House panel approves peshmerga bill that Baghdad deems 'unwise and unnecessary'
The House Foreign Affairs panel voted to directly arm Kurdish forces.
A key House panel voted unanimously Dec. 9 to bypass Baghdad and directly arm Kurdish peshmerga forces in their fight against the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS).
The Foreign Affairs Committee bill goes further than previous such efforts by instructing the US president to merely "consult" with Baghdad, effectively cutting Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's government out of the equation. The distinction wasn't lost on the Iraqi Embassy in Washington, which slammed the bill as "unwise and unnecessary" ahead of the vote.
"The focus of all Iraqis and our allies at this time needs to be on defeating Daesh [IS]," the embassy said in a statement. "Promoting artificial divisions among Iraqis can only distract from the struggle against our common enemy."
Kurdish forces have long complained that the current system of transiting US weapons through Baghdad has caused unnecessary delays in getting them to the battlefield. The Iraqi government disputes this, as does the Pentagon.
