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Assistant Protection Secretary Celeste Wallander met with Iraqi leaders final week to reaffirm the U.S. partnership with the nation, and to underscore the U.S. dedication to supporting Iraq within the defeat-ISIS mission.
Wallander, the assistant secretary for worldwide safety affairs, additionally signed an up to date memorandum of understanding with Shoresh Ismail Abdulla, the Kurdistan Regional Authorities minister of peshmerga affairs, on Sept. 21. The settlement units out mutually agreed parameters for the subsequent 4 years because the U.S. continues to assist to the peshmerga for Defeat-ISIS operations.
In Baghdad, Wallander met with Iraq Protection Minister Jumah Inad Sadun and different protection leaders. She underscored the long-term partnership between the US and Iraq and mentioned on-going efforts to construct the operational capability of the Iraqi safety forces. She and Iraq’s protection leaders checked out increasing the cooperation between the 2 nations past counterterrorism operations to deal with rising threats and improve collaboration and interoperability.
Wallander then traveled to the Iraqi metropolis of Irbil the place she met with Kurdish officers, together with Nechirvan Idris Barzani, president of Iraq’s Kurdistan area and commander in chief of the peshmerga.
The memorandum of understanding she signed on behalf of the Division of Protection continues the essential partnership with the peshmerga stretching again to the primary Gulf Struggle. “For many years, we’ve labored collectively based mostly on shared goals and a typical dedication to the mandate that every one folks deserve dignity, safety and the best to hunt a greater future,” she stated in the course of the signing ceremony in Irbil.
The enemy right now is the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The fear group burst from the ungoverned areas of Syria in 2014 and overwhelmed forces arrayed towards it. The Division of Protection first signed an MOU with the Kurdistan Regional Authorities in 2016, when ISIS held giant swaths of territory throughout Iraq, to obviously show DOD’s dedication to the peshmerga as they and different Iraqi safety forces labored with the worldwide coalition to liberate tens of millions of Iraqis from ISIS terror.
“Since 2014, the U.S.-led coalition has supported Iraq’s battle towards ISIS,” Wallander stated. “Collectively, we liberated greater than 50,000 sq. kilometers from ISIS management, together with essential infrastructure and inhabitants facilities in Iraq’s Kurdistan area, freed greater than 4.5 million Iraqis from ISIS terrorism, and supplied our Iraqi-Kurdish companions with restoration and stabilization assist.”
ISIS not holds territory, however it continues as a shadowy terror group to focus on the residents of Iraq and populations throughout the broader area. “America stays dedicated to supporting the Iraqi Safety Forces, together with the Kurdish peshmerga, to make sure the enduring defeat of ISIS,” she stated.
The up to date memorandum serves as an organizing framework for the supply of defeat ISIS help to the peshmerga — outlining DOD’s dedication to supply assist and the Kurdistan Regional Authorities’s dedication to continued reforms that may modernize the peshmerga forces.
U.S. forces stay in Iraq on the invitation of the federal government to advise, help and allow Iraqi safety forces. “We should proceed to work collectively to guard the beneficial properties made towards ISIS and set the situations for the subsequent part of the battle by denying ISIS even the smallest alternative to resurge,” Wallander stated. “This MOU will information the Division of Protection’s future help to the peshmerga, which is a pillar of the division’s broader ‘D[efeat]-ISIS’ partnership with the federal government of Iraq.”
“On this event, I need to provide my deep appreciation and respect for the great sacrifices made by members of the peshmerga who gave their lives within the battle to defeat ISIS,” Wallander stated. “America is cognizant of the price of victory to the peshmerga, and we’re honored to be your companions — on and off the battlefield.”
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