Mideast allies say Obama, other Western leaders blocking them from arming Kurds

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters outside Mosul.Reuters

US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and other Western leaders are reportedly blocking attempts by Middle East allies to directly arm the Kurds who are fighting against the Islamic State in Iraq.

In its report, The Telegraph said high-level officials from Gulf and other Mideast states have accused Western leaders of not showing leadership over the increasing ISIS crisis in the region.

Frustrated by the absence of such leadership and the ISIS' growing terror campaign, the Gulf Arab officials said they are willing to "go it alone" and find ways to deliver weapons to the Kurds, whose weapons are being channelled through Baghdad, even if this move would mean defying both Iraq and the US.

"If the Americans and the West are not prepared to do anything serious about defeating ISIL, then we will have to find new ways of dealing with the threat," said an unnamed senior Arab government official.

"With ISIL making ground all the time we simply cannot afford to wait for Washington to wake up to the enormity of the threat we face," the official said.

At least one Arab country is looking to arm the Peshmerga and sidestepping the US.

Other members of the coalition also expressed annoyance as the US has stopped them from engaging clear militant targets they have identified.

One Gulf leader said "there is simply no strategic approach."

A number of European countries have also bought weapons worth millions of pounds to arm the Kurds, but US commanders who are supervising all military operations against the ISIS are disallowing the transfers of weapons, The Telegraph wrote.

Gulf sources said plans to convince Obama to arm the Kurds directly collapsed after the US Senate voted down an amendment that would give defence equipment to the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq, which has long grumbled about the delays in obtaining arms from Baghdad.

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have been engaging ISIS militants on the ground using makeshift weapons in their effort to drive them back from Erbil.

The Kurdish fighters have also complained about Iraqi soldiers abandoning their weapons in ISIS attacks, leaving them to fight jihadists armed with American-made weapons with Soviet-style arms.