KRG hopes US will play mediator in Kurdistan’s separation from Iraq
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Kurdistan Region hopes that the United States will play a mediator’s role between Erbil and Baghdad in the Kurdish region’s upcoming independence referendum.
"The United States can play a very important role," Falah Mustafa, head of the Region’s foreign relations department told Foreign Policy magazine. "It has leverage, and it has tools, in order to be the broker … in bringing Erbil and Baghdad to this process of negotiation."
The United States' stance is that the timing of the September 25 referendum be changed until after Iraq’s next parliamentary elections in 2018 and in order not to take the focus away from the war against ISIS.
In working with the US and the global coalition against ISIS in the last three years the Kurds have proven themselves to be a reliable ally, Kurdish leaders argue.
"The United States has found out that Kurds are their best friends and allies — in building democracy, in fighting terrorism, in caring for the displaced communities and standing for the minorities," said Mustafa, who is in the US capital on a lobbying tour.
The Kurdish Peshmerga have sacrificed more than 1,700 fighters over the past three years with about 10,000 more sustaining injuries.
Ministry of Peshmerga spokesman Halgurd Hikmat reassured Washington at a press conference at the Pentagon last week that the referendum was a political matter and would not distract the Kurdish forces from fighting ISIS.
Mustafa said that the Kurds had issues with the fact that “Whoever sits in Baghdad wants to grab all the power and control everything.”
Kurdish leaders, chief among them President Masoud Barzani, have long said that separation from Iraq would be best for both Iraq itself and the Kurds and they hope that the international community, the United States in particular, will give them a chance to practice this democratic right.
"The people of Kurdistan do hope that the United States would stand by the values, the principles, and also the friendship that we have developed," Mustafa said.
"The United States can play a very important role," Falah Mustafa, head of the Region’s foreign relations department told Foreign Policy magazine. "It has leverage, and it has tools, in order to be the broker … in bringing Erbil and Baghdad to this process of negotiation."
The United States' stance is that the timing of the September 25 referendum be changed until after Iraq’s next parliamentary elections in 2018 and in order not to take the focus away from the war against ISIS.
In working with the US and the global coalition against ISIS in the last three years the Kurds have proven themselves to be a reliable ally, Kurdish leaders argue.
"The United States has found out that Kurds are their best friends and allies — in building democracy, in fighting terrorism, in caring for the displaced communities and standing for the minorities," said Mustafa, who is in the US capital on a lobbying tour.
The Kurdish Peshmerga have sacrificed more than 1,700 fighters over the past three years with about 10,000 more sustaining injuries.
Ministry of Peshmerga spokesman Halgurd Hikmat reassured Washington at a press conference at the Pentagon last week that the referendum was a political matter and would not distract the Kurdish forces from fighting ISIS.
Mustafa said that the Kurds had issues with the fact that “Whoever sits in Baghdad wants to grab all the power and control everything.”
Kurdish leaders, chief among them President Masoud Barzani, have long said that separation from Iraq would be best for both Iraq itself and the Kurds and they hope that the international community, the United States in particular, will give them a chance to practice this democratic right.
"The people of Kurdistan do hope that the United States would stand by the values, the principles, and also the friendship that we have developed," Mustafa said.