Erbil, Asharq Al-Awsat—A Kurdish military delegation that arrived in Baghdad yesterday announced the resumption of talks with the Iraqi Defense Ministry over Erbil’s readiness to deploy Peshmerga forces across Iraq for the purposes of confronting terrorism.

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of Peshmerga secretary-general Jabbar Yawar told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Kurdish military delegation “informed the Iraqi side of the Peshmerga ministry’s complete readiness to send its forces to any spot in Iraq to confront terrorism, in the event of the federal Ministry of Defense requesting this.”

He added, “Terrorism is a scourge that we must all work together to confront and eradicate, we are ready for any form of military, security, and intelligence coordination and cooperation with the Iraqi forces to confront terrorism and armed militias.”

Yawar emphasized, “This was confirmed by the KRG presidential statement in terms of the deteriorating security situation that has taken place in Iraq recently, on the basis that what threatens Iraq will also threaten us, and we are part of the Iraqi defense force, carrying out our duty towards our people and the people of Iraq as a whole”

Yawar, along with Gen. Shirvan Abdel-Rahman, was in Baghdad to meet with senior military officials.

Speaking exclusively to Asharq Al-Awsat, he revealed: “Our discussions started from the point at which they had stopped at the last meeting…we reviewed all the points that we had previously discussed to develop a specific mechanism for implementation.”

“We also discussed military plans for greater joint coordination and cooperation in managing the security file,” he added.

An official statement posed on the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan website on Saturday confirmed that “a military delegation from the Kurdistan region arrived in Baghdad under the supervision of Shirvan Abdel-Rahman and Jabbar Yawar to discuss previous agreements [between the KRG Ministry of Peshmerga and Iraqi Defense Ministry] and ways of activating these.”

The statement added that the latest round of meetings comes after mutual visits between Baghdad and Erbil, with the two sides agreeing on the need to find appropriate solutions to outstanding issues.