On the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue forum in Bahrain on Saturday, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Minister of Peshmerga Affairs Shoresh Ismail Abdulla met with Michael P.DiMino IV, Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Near East and Central Asia. 

In the meeting, which was attended by Lieutenant General Issa Ozer, Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs (MoPA), discussions were held on the completion of the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. Department of Defense and the MoPA. 

In early September, Minister Abdulla announced that the process of fully unifying and reorganizing the Peshmerga forces under the umbrella of the MoPA was completed as part of the MoU.

Peshmerga soldiers were previously split between political factions, with 70 units under the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and 80 units under the Kurdistan Democratic Party. 

For his part, Secretary DiMino congratulated and praised Minister Abdulla on the unification and reorganization of the Kurdistan Peshmerga forces and the successful implementation of the MoU between the two sides. He described the unification of the Peshmerga forces as an important step.

During the same meeting, both sides discussed several other important and significant issues related to the security situation in the region and the ongoing coordination between them.

On October 30,2026, a high-level delegation from the KRG MoPA, including Minister Abdulla and Lieutenant General Ozer, participated in the 22nd Manama Dialogue Regional Security Summit in Bahrain.

The delegation attended at the official invitation of Dr. Bastian Giegerich, Director-General and Chief Executive of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, which organizes the annual forum in Manama, Bahrain’s capital.