The US Department of Defense, the Pentagon, began today, Thursday, preparations to transfer a group of air defense systems in preparation for handing them over to the Peshmerga forces in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, in conjunction with the continuation of the twenty million dollar grant granted per month from Washington to the Peshmerga.
The Middle East Eye network said in a report that the Armed Forces Service Committee in the US Congress decided yesterday, Wednesday, to grant the Peshmerga forces in Iraq a set of air defense systems, despite the opposition of the Ministry of Defense, which said that it believes that the systems are “of great value and required.”
The Committee stated to the network that it had informed the US Administration to prepare to implement the plan to support the Peshmerga, which includes arming and training them in the use of modern systems, noting that the aim of the plan is to provide the possibility of confronting the Turkish and Iranian planes that are constantly bombing the region, according to the description of Republican Congressman Don Bacon.
It is noteworthy that the US Administration had earlier rejected an Iraqi request to purchase modern air defense systems before it intervened to prevent the Iraqi government from obtaining the Russian S-400 systems as an alternative.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency