Kurdish Leader Agrees to Accept Arms on U.S. Terms in Fight Against ISIS

Kurdish Leader Agrees to Accept Arms on U.S. Terms in Fight Against ISIS


WASHINGTON — The politically charged debate over whether the United States should directly arm Kurdish fighters in their battle against the Islamic State appeared to have been eased on Friday when Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous region, said he was prepared to accept weapons delivery “whatever way the administration chooses.”

The Kurds’ appeal for direct arms deliveries has been an extremely delicate issue for Iraqi politicians and for the Obama administration.

Republican lawmakers and even some Democrats, responding to complaints that it has taken too long for American weapons to be delivered, have drafted legislation calling for the United States to provide direct military assistance to the Kurds and Sunni tribes. But those moves have been seized on by Shiite politicians in Baghdad, particularly critics of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who have charged that the United States is trying to encourage Kurdish independence and the breakup of Iraq.

Seeking to dispel such anxieties, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. told Mr. Abadi in a phone conversation last Saturday that all American military assistance for the battle against the Islamic State “must be coordinated through the government of Iraq.”

To underscore the point, the White House also took the unusual step of making that assurance public in a news release that was issued the day before Mr. Barzani arrived for talks here this week with Mr. Biden, President Obama and other senior officials and lawmakers.

Mr. Barzani, concluding his nearly weeklong visit, said that his main concern had been to ensure that weapons got into the hands of Kurdish pesh merga fighters as quickly as possible, and that the White House had assured him that they would receive “the necessary weapons.” But even as Mr. Barzani made clear that he was not openly challenging White House policy, he did not back away from his desire for direct assistance.

“The problem between the Congress and the White House is something that we will not interfere with,” Mr. Barzani told reporters, speaking through an interpreter. “But if we are asked, we would prefer these weapons to be sent to us directly.”

Mr. Barzani did not repeat earlier appeals by Kurdish officials for heavy weapons like tanks and helicopters, systems that would aggravate the Iraqi government’s concerns, and that American officials have said would take years to provide if the United States were ever prepared to deliver them. Instead, he said that the United States should provide weapons that Kurdish fighters were familiar with or that would require “short-term training.”

In an appearance at the Atlantic Council this week, Mr. Barzani suggested that the Kurds had deferred, but not abandoned, their dream of independence. He said that a referendum on independence would be delayed until the fight against ISIS was over, and that the unity of Iraq was “voluntary and not compulsory.”

Mr. Barzani’s own future has also become an important subject of speculation. Kurdish law limits the president to two four-year terms. Mr. Barzani’s second term was extended by two years in 2013, despite objections from some political opponents.

That has led to a supposition that Mr. Barzani will again seek to extend his term, which runs out in August, on the grounds that he must contend with the security crisis in Iraq. Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdish region and the president’s nephew, told the Voice of America last month that such an extension was “vital.”

“I personally believe that extending the presidential term for President Barzani is vital in the current situation,” he said. “Certainly President Barzani is against violating the Constitution, so we need to find a suitable solution to this matter.”

In an appearance on Friday at the Council on Foreign Relations, President Barzani asserted that the earlier two-year extension had been “imposed on me” and that he was not pursuing a new one. But he stopped short of ruling out that a way might be found to extend his role if presidential elections were again deferred.

“I have talked to the Parliament and the political parties that they have to solve this issue,” Mr. Barzani said.