ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga ministry on Thursday announced the historic milestone of successfully completing the unification process of the Peshmerga forces under the ministry’s umbrella, following years of effort.

“Today, with pride, we announce a historic piece of good news and a great achievement that has been the long-held dream of our people; the process of fully unifying and restructuring the Peshmerga forces under the umbrella of the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs has successfully come to an end,” read a statement from Shoresh Ismail, the Minister of Peshmerga Affairs.

The historic process, overseen by the US-led international coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS), sought to incorporate the Peshmerga’s Unit 80 forces, affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and Unit 70 forces, affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), into the Peshmerga ministry.

The two formations make up the majority of Kurdish Peshmerga forces, numbering over 150,000 troops.

“Within the framework of this fundamental reform, all forces have been reorganized under a single command and control structure,” the minister added.

The two commands “were able to overcome all the accumulated obstacles and difficulties,” following “years of struggle, continuous effort, and working as a single united team.”

“We at the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs devoted all our capacity to the success of this national process, until we reached this outstanding result whereby today the Unit 70 and Unit 80 forces have been unified through a careful, military, and pre-planned process,” the statement added.

“This is a historic achievement, and the Kurdistan Region will now have a unified and modern army, under the direct command of the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs.”

The Peshmerga were long divided by varying units' political affiliations, resulting in international pressure to bring the Kurdish armed forces under a central command.

The Peshmerga forces had long been divided by different units' political affiliations, aggravated by partisan rivalry and distrust among the Region’s two ruling parties, resulting in international pressure to bring the Kurdish armed forces under a central command.

In 2022, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the US Department of Defense signed a four-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support the reform and integration of the Peshmerga forces into a unified army. The agreement, which entailed financial and military support for the Peshmerga, was extended until September 2026 last year.

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister in February signed a decree bringing regional Peshmerga forces’ command, budget, and legal accountability under the Peshmerga ministry, marking a substantial step towards unifying the force.

The lack of progress in the Peshmerga reform program was widely cited by media outlets and analysts as a potential factor for the reduction in US support for the forces. With the completion of the unification process, the development could potentially pave the way for renewed support.

The Peshmerga minister extended “endless appreciation” for the US-led international coalition for their “significant and prominent” role in the signed MoU, calling on the international allies to “continue supporting the unified Peshmerga forces of Kurdistan” in the coming phase.

The United States’ proposed Counter-ISIS Train and Equip Fund (CTEF) bill for 2027, does not contain any allocations for the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga, while the 2026 included a sum of 61 million dollars in support of the Kurdish forces. The 2027 bill reserves over 118 million dollars for federal Iraqi forces.