BAGHDAD — Congress may reconsider a provision in a bill funding the training of the Iraqi army that would send weapons directly to Arab Sunnis and Kurds, a congressman visiting Baghdad said Sunday.
However, Rep. Michael T. McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security who was visiting Baghdad with seven other members, said after meetings with the Iraqi government that Congress would seek a way to ensure the Sunnis and Kurds fighting the Islamic State group receive weapons.
“I think there is a way to streamline the process of getting the weapons to both the Sunni tribes and the (Kurdish) peshmerga, where it is desperately needed to defeat ISIS, while at the same time not undermining the government of Iraq in Baghdad,” McCaul told The Associated Press, referring to the Islamic State by an acronym.
On Wednesday, influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militia was once a major force, threatened to attack U.S. interests if the original provision, which would divert 25 percent of the $715 million defense bill to train the Iraqi army, passed.
Al-Sadr's statement precipitated a cascade of condemnations by members of the Shiite-dominated government and its allied militias.
The provision stems from concerns that the Iraqi government is withholding weapons from the Kurdish peshmerga forces, which are bearing the brunt of the fight against the Islamic State in the north.
