Republican Congressman of Arizona Trent Franks, who was one of the first to come out in support of the Kurdish referendum this week, tells Rudaw that the United States will not accept any blockade of the Kurdistan Region.

“We’d be very much against that and would work to try to mediate that and stop it in any way that we could,” he told Rudaw.

“Any effort to blockade the Kurdish people is a wrong thing,” Congressman Franks added.

He said that the Kurds should not be punished for “having the audacity to want freedom.”

“I’m not here to tell the Kurds one way or another but I’m here to say that they’ve that right to self-determination,” the Arizona Representative said.

He went on to say that he did not think President Donald Trump would accept the blockade either.

“I don’t think his administration will look upon that with anything but anger and frustration and it could even invoke action on their part.”

“The president has shown a commitment to freedom in the world in general. I wouldn’t seek to speak for him in terms of what his position on all these issues are but I’m convinced that his would be similar to mine in terms of a people who have demonstrated a kind of commitment to several areas of freedom as the Kurds have done and deserve the right to self-determination.”