“We are taking every precautionary measure to provide maximum security for his Holiness’s visit to our region,” Barzani told France 24 in an interview on Saturday. “This will be a historic visit for his Holiness to the Kurdistan Region and so to Iraq, and we believe this is going to shed light on the efforts that the KRG has done over the years for tolerance and acceptance of religious groups and minorities that live in Kurdistan for many, many years.”
The Kurdistan Region has been a safe haven for tens of thousands of Christians who have fled violence in the rest of Iraq since 2003, as well as millions of Muslim Arabs and Syrian refugees who have lived in the semi-autonomous region in peace and harmony for nearly 20 years. In a February 15 rocket attack on Erbil, the killed an injured included a father of two from Ramadi who sought safety in the Kurdistan Region for his family during the war against the Islamic State group (ISIS) and a refugee from Kobane, Syria who fled the civil conflict there.
In a visit to the Vatican last February, Barzani discussed with Pope Francis the Kurdistan Region’s achievements in protecting religious and ethnic minorities and hailed successes in guaranteeing freedom of worship for all faiths.
While the Kurdistan Region has been spared most of the violence that has engulfed the rest of the country in recent years, rockets have landed in the capital Erbil, fired by shadowy groups reportedly affiliated with elements within Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) who are loyal to Iran.
In response to attacks on US and coalition facilities, including the one on Erbil on February 15, the US last week launched airstrikes on Shiite militias loyal to Iran in the town of al-Bukamal on the Syria-Iraq border. They completely destroyed at least nine facilities, according to Pentagon spokesperson John F. Kirby.
The Iraqi government has identified, but not publicly named, who was behind the rocket attack on Erbil, but Barzani is being cautious before assigning blame.
The “US obviously has conducted this operation on credible evidence, but as far as I can condemn any particular group, I would rather wait until the investigation is done and all the perpetrators are in custody,” Barzani said when he was pushed to name the militia groups involved.
These PMF units are one of the two issues for Kurdish security forces ensuring the safety of Pope Francis during his March 7 visit. The second is remnants of the Islamic State group (ISIS).
The Kurds are wary of the presence of PMF forces near their borders with federal Iraq. Repeated attempts to patch up differences with Baghdad have failed to result in a long lasting pact that would allow both forces to focus on elements of ISIS still causing havoc in these disputed areas.
Barzani, who headed the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC), the body which oversees the work of various security and intelligence agencies in the region, and was effectively in charge of the KRG’s anti-ISIS operation from Erbil for several years before he became prime minister on July 10, 2019, believes that the war against ISIS is “still unfinished business.”
He warned that the group is reorganizing, particularly in the disputed territories where the lack of cooperation between Kurdish Peshmerga and federal government forces has left a security vacuum that ISIS is exploiting.
“We have made proposals to the federal government of Iraq, we have had numerous meetings with the officials to close that gap by bringing legitimate and legal forces to those areas including from the federal government and from the Kurdistan Region to close that gap and to deny ISIS access to those regions,” Barzani said. “So they remain to be a main problem and that requires much closer cooperation amongst the friends and allies.”
According to the official itinerary published by the Vatican on Monday, the pope will hold mass in Erbil on March 7, following visits to Mosul and Qaraqosh in the Nineveh Plains earlier in the day.
