Tom Barrack on the Peshmerga: We engage exclusively with sovereign states rather than militias, and the transfer of the Zelikan base to Baghdad represents a historic turning point.

In decisive remarks reflecting the American vision for Iraq's security and political landscape, Tom Barrack emphasized the necessity of dealing exclusively with official state institutions, stressing the importance of unifying the armed forces and ending divisions. He also welcomed the recent agreement between Baghdad and Ankara regarding the handover of the "Zelikan" (Bashiqa) camp to the Federal Government, considering it a strategic step toward regional stability.

A Strict Message on Unifying the Peshmerga Responding to a question from the Rudaw network regarding efforts to unify the Peshmerga forces, Barrack delivered a clear message to the Kurdish leadership about the need to end the partisan division of these forces and integrate them under the official state umbrella. Barrack stated bluntly: "We deal with states, not militias, and the future of Iraq depends on the existence of one nation and one state."

This statement reflects explicit American pressure to integrate the Peshmerga brigades into the national military institution. It signals that international partnerships and support are granted to unified state armies, and that continued fragmentation and partisan loyalties place these forces in the category of "militias" that cannot be treated as legitimate, independent entities.

Zelikan Camp: Iraq's Sovereignty and Turkey's Security Regarding the strategic shifts between Iraq and Turkey, Barrack reacted positively to the decision to return the Zelikan camp to the control of the Iraqi state, describing it as a quiet and profound transformation in the region's trajectory, moving away from the language of escalation.

Commenting on this event, Barrack said: "History rarely announces its turning points; rather, it weaves them quietly. Ankara's return of the Zelikan base to Baghdad, according to an agreed-upon mechanism and timetable, represents one of the threads of this transformation: Iraq's sovereignty and Turkey's security, both being achieved simultaneously. What appears from afar as chaos is, in fact, a region weaving its own order."

These positions reaffirm the strategy that supports centralization and strengthening the sovereignty of the Iraqi state by ending the phenomenon of parallel armed formations, while building regional understandings that simultaneously guarantee the security of neighboring countries and Iraq's internal stability.