PM:11:54:28/12/2021
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SULAIMANI — US President Joe Biden on
Monday (December 28) signed his country's defense budget bill for 2022, which
would allocate $260 million for Peshmerga forces in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq
and $177 million for Syrian Kurds and another force called al-Thawra.
The Voice of America published a report
and said Biden's signature directly makes the project lawful. In other words,
the Department of Defense (DOD) can start spending the $771 billion allocated
to it next year.
This time, the Pentagon’s budget will
increase by five percent due to inflation. The budget of defense department
employees will increase by 2.7 percent next year.
Details of how the budget will be spent
in the Middle East have been published in a DOD appendix. and it is written $5 million
will be allocated to the Peshmerga to buy Puma drones.
AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma is an American
company in California that builds drones for spying or data collection, not
attacking.
More money for Peshmerga, less for
Baghdad
The US aid for the Kurdistan Region is
three times the amount the US has provided for the other part of Iraq. The
entire Iraqi and the Kurdistan Region portion put together is $345 million, but
if $260 million is subtracted from the total, only $85 million remains for
Iraq.
This could be due to the Kurdistan
Regional Government’s (KRG) dissatisfaction with Baghdad’s refusal to send the
entire Region's share of the budget, and perhaps why the US has reduced Iraq's
share in return.
"The Ministry of Peshmerga in the
Kurdistan Region of Iraq continues to play a fundamental role as part of Iraqi
security forces in the operations against ISIS forces,” the defense department
stated. "Peshmerga is a strong northern front that prevents ISIS from entering
the Kurdistan Region,"
At least 1,700 Peshmerga have died and
more than 10,000 have been wounded in the fight against ISIS.
Funds provided for Syrian Kurds
The money provided to the Syrian
Democratic Forces (SDF) and for Syria in general is $23 million less than last
year's $200 million.
Most of the US funds [$78 million] will
be distributed as monthly salaries to Kurdish-led SDF fighters.
Sinam Mohammed, a representative of the
Syrian Democratic Council in Washington, told the VOA, "The Syrian
Democratic Council thanks President Biden for leading and signing the defense
ministry's budget law. The Biden administration and the US Congress clearly
acknowledge the important role the SDF has with the US against ISIS."
What remains is $177 million, which is for
logistical support, training and military equipment. Only $2 million has been allocated for
infrastructure repair and renovations.
The duty of the US Department of
Defense in Syria remains the permanent destruction of ISIS, as written in the
DOD's appendix.
The budget law specifically noted that
the US should have a "diplomatic strategy" to repatriate the families
of foreign ISIS militants, most of whom are in the al-Hol camp in Syria.
(NRT Digital Media)