ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga minister praised as “historic steps” the reforms enacted by his ministry during the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) ninth cabinet, at a ceremony unifying two Peshmerga regional commands on Tuesday. 

Two regional commands of the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces united under the Peshmerga ministry’s umbrella in a ceremony in Erbil on Tuesday. 

“These historic steps by the Peshmerga ministry for the reform process are big achievements,” Minister Shoresh Ismail told a press conference during the ceremony.

He praised the “two completely different realities” in Peshmerga reforms from 2019, when the KRG’s ninth cabinet under Prime Minister Masrour Barzani took office.

In 2022, Erbil and Washington signed a four-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support the reform and unification of the Peshmerga forces, with the goal of completing the process before October 2026.

The agreement provided financial and military support for the integration of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) Unit 80 and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan’s (PUK) Unit 70, which make up most of the Peshmerga forces, under the Ministry of Peshmerga.

“We hope that this historic success is followed by even greater achievements,” said Ismail. 

In February, Prime Minister Barzani signed a decree bringing regional Peshmerga forces’ command, budget, and legal accountability under the Peshmerga ministry. 

One of the key objectives of the KRG's ninth cabinet has been the Peshmerga reform process, with a number of brigades controlled by the two parties already incorporated into the ministry.