ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A senior delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) interior and Peshmerga ministries headed for Baghdad Wednesday for talks on “normalizing ties,” officials said.

“The visit is part of the meetings held between the KRG’s delegations and the federal government on the previous pending issues,” a Peshmerga ministry official told Rudaw.

“It had been decided that the Iraqi defense ministry’s military committee would meet with the Peshmerga ministry committee to normalize bilateral ties,” the Peshmerga official said.

The delegation includes Kurdish interior minister Karim Sinjari, Peshmerga minister Mustafa Said Qadir and spokesman Jabbar Yawar, as well as Sherwan Abdulrehman, a member of the general command of the region’s security forces.

Ties between the KRG and Baghdad, severely strained under the previous Iraqi prime minister, have been on the mend since Premier Haidar Abadi assumed office last summer.

The Peshmerga have been the main force standing up to the Islamic State in Iraq since the collapse of the Iraqi army in the face of an ISIS onslaught in August.

Rudaw