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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Joe Biden, Democratic United States presidential candidate, has a clearer vision for the Middle East than his rival Donald Trump, but is not likely to further the cause for a Kurdish state, argued political science pundits appearing on Rudaw TV’s Ranj and the USA daily programme leading up to the November 3 election.
"Biden is more experienced than Trump in all fields in the region,” said Dr. Omed Rafiq. Trump’s foreign policy is “chaotic,” he added. The incumbent “does not have a clear vision, as we saw how he changed his mind in northeast Syria."
Biden, a career politician, has “a more frank stance and attitude towards the region," said Nma Sara, a political science student at the University of Sulaimani. But while Kurds may think Trump has no love for the Kurds after his decision to pull American troops out of Syria, leaving Kurdish forces open to a Turkish attack, Biden too has not supported Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria, she said. Biden also did not back the 2017 Kurdistan Region independence referendum.
She argued that whatever the outcome of the election, "it will not sharply affect the Kurdish cause" because the US is no longer a dominant power in the Middle East. “There are other actors present on the ground in the region,” she said.
Lamo Kurda, also a political science student at the University of Sulaimani, has thrown his support behind Biden, because four more years of Trump “means another setback of the USA. But if Biden wins, American will strongly return to the political arena in the region and the world."
During the Obama administration, when Biden was vice president, "the US was very strongly present in the region and they were here to thwart the threats of terror,” said Kurda.
"Biden is more experienced than Trump in all fields in the region,” said Dr. Omed Rafiq. Trump’s foreign policy is “chaotic,” he added. The incumbent “does not have a clear vision, as we saw how he changed his mind in northeast Syria."
Biden, a career politician, has “a more frank stance and attitude towards the region," said Nma Sara, a political science student at the University of Sulaimani. But while Kurds may think Trump has no love for the Kurds after his decision to pull American troops out of Syria, leaving Kurdish forces open to a Turkish attack, Biden too has not supported Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria, she said. Biden also did not back the 2017 Kurdistan Region independence referendum.
She argued that whatever the outcome of the election, "it will not sharply affect the Kurdish cause" because the US is no longer a dominant power in the Middle East. “There are other actors present on the ground in the region,” she said.
Lamo Kurda, also a political science student at the University of Sulaimani, has thrown his support behind Biden, because four more years of Trump “means another setback of the USA. But if Biden wins, American will strongly return to the political arena in the region and the world."
During the Obama administration, when Biden was vice president, "the US was very strongly present in the region and they were here to thwart the threats of terror,” said Kurda.
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