On Sunday, the Kurdistan Regional Government Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs (MoPA) announced that a joint meeting had been held between Iraqi security forces and Peshmerga forces in Baghdad to advance cooperation prior to the withdrawal of Coalition forces from the Kurdistan Region.

The meeting was attended by First Lieutenant General Abdul Amir Shamari, Director of the Special Military Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces; Lieutenant General Isa Ozeir, Chief of Staff of the MoPA; the head of Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Agency; the head of the Border Crossings Authority; the head of Intelligence of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior; a number of senior officers and military commanders; and the heads of the security agencies of the Kurdistan Region.

The MoPA stated that, during the meeting, the security of the areas of common interest between the Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi security forces — which are protected through joint brigades — was discussed. 

Emphasis was placed on greater cooperation and coordination with those brigades so that they can better and more firmly control and protect those areas.

Border security and the joint protection of the borders by the Iraqi Border Guard and the Peshmerga forces were also discussed, as were joint training programs and schedules between the two sides.

The meeting comes amid the withdrawal of the U.S.-led Coalition forces in the Kurdistan Region, scheduled to be completed by the end of September, and the ongoing peace process between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which could include the withdrawal of PKK fighters from areas in the Kurdistan Region that will then be taken over by Iraqi Border Guard or Peshmerga forces.