Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has said that he strongly opposed a bill proposed by the US Congress that allows the Iraqi Kurds to be armed directly, bypassing Iraq’s central government.
In March, the US Congress introduced legislation to sidestep the bureaucratic delays in Baghdad that have led to delays in arms shipments to the Kurdish front against the ISIL. The legislation would allocate military articles directly to the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.
The Iraqi Prime Minister added in a press release yesterday that countries working alongside Baghdad in combatting the ISIL have respected Iraq’s sovereignty and stressed that nobody will receive weapons without the consent of the central government.