WASHINGTON
A senior political figure in the Kurdistan Regional Government has confirmed that the autonomous Iraqi region has asked U.S. officials for heavy weapons to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terror group.
Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to KRG president Masoud Barzani, and Falah Mustafa Bakir, the KRG’s foreign department chief, were speaking at the Washington-based United States Institute of Peace on Thursday.
Hussein said that airstrikes or ground operations alone would not be enough to defeat ISIL and called for a combination of both.
"If the target is to clean the cities of ISIL, especially Mosul city, then we need tanks. We need helicopters. We need artillery. We are here to talk about that and we have already started discussions," he said.
Mustafa Bakir, speaking on the same panel, said that some European countries had provided light to mid-range weapons to Kurdish peshmerga forces but they would need heavy weapons to take the fight to the extremist group which has swept across parts Syria and northern Iraq.
"What we want is to have heavy weapons for offensive purposes rather than defensive purposes, because we cannot defeat ISIL unless we move against them," he said.
Another major challenge for the KRG has been the humanitarian crisis caused by ISIL; Bakir said that the Kurdish authorities would need assistance from the U.S. to help the KRG host an international conference on getting aid to the huge numbers of refugees in the Kurdish region.
"The refugees from Syria are still there and there is no prospect for a solution in Syria," he said. "There are refugees within Iraq. We can have these people return but the winter is approaching and we need to ensure that they will not face a humanitarian challenge again."
The leaders also touched upon the main challenges with the Iraqi government in Baghdad, such as paying the KRG’s budget, resolving the issue of disputed areas plus a sharp division over sharing oil revenues.
Hussein said they hoped the newly elected government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi would address these challenges.
Under significant internal and external pressure, Iraqi leaders have formed a new government that includes Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.
However, key challenges, particularly with the Kurds lie ahead.
Kurds have given Abadi three months to meet their demands on the national budget, oil and gas issues and disputed territories.
Hussein said that if these problems are not resolved in three months they would return to the Kurdish people to decide about their future.
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