May 12, 2015

Congress is rewriting a provision to directly arm Iraqi Kurdish and Sunni militias after a backlash from Baghdad and threats to US troops.

The annual defense bill that cleared the House Armed Services Committee last month would have deemed the militias "countries" in order to make it easier for the United States to arm them directly. Criticism from Iraq and the Obama administration, however, has prompted the panel's chairman to seek to rewrite the provision as the bill prepares to hit the House floor May15.

"I filed a manager's amendment to just emphasize what I said during the markup, and that is in no way are we trying to make a comment about decisions about Iraqi sovereignty that they ought to make for themselves," Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, told reporters May 12. "The manager's amendment I have filed would clarify that we're not trying to break up Iraq or treat any of these entities as separate countries. What we're trying to do is to encourage all of these groups to come together to fight a common enemy, which is ISIS [the Islamic State]."

Thornberry's amendment would simply remove language stating that the peshmerga, Sunni tribal security forces and the yet-to-be-established Iraqi Sunni national guard "shall each be deemed to be a country" for purposes of aid eligibility. The amendment, however, retains a controversial requirement that at least 25% of $715 million in annual US military aid go straight to the three groups — a provision the Obama administration has asked be removed.

"The position of this administration has been clear and consistent in support of a unified Iraq," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said after the bill was first introduced. "Our policy remains that all arms transfers must be coordinated via the sovereign central government of Iraq. We believe this policy is the most effective way to support the coalition’s efforts to combat ISIL [the Islamic State] and promote our policy of a unified, federal, pluralistic and democratic state."