WASHINGTON DC – Even though the United States officially states that it wants the Kurds to remain part of Iraq rather than going for outright independence in a planned referendum, two top Kurdish officials say Washington has increasingly become empathetic to the ethnic group’s statehood aspirations.
Asked whether U.S. government’s official statements for a “united Iraq,” would mean its opposition to Kurdish independence, Falah Mustafa, Kurdistan’s de facto foreign minister, replied, “We have always heard such statements but the [US] position has gone under a significant change.”
Mustafa made his comments Thursday, shortly before meeting Vice President Joe Biden and a day after meeting Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington. Nearly a week ago, Kerry made a special visit to Kurdistan urging its leaders to remain committed to Iraq’s territorial integrity and join the Iraqi Army in fighting the radical militants of the Islamic State (IS).
His demand, however, was turned down right away by Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani, according to sources familiar with the meeting. “There is a new reality in Iraq,” Barzani said.
Mustafa didn’t elaborate further on whether U.S. officials, in private meetings, had made any sort of promises to recognize what many view as an imminent independent Kurdistan.
But he added, “what we see now, not only here in America but in most countries we have visited, including our neighbors, Arab countries, and the international community, is a change that they are increasingly welcoming towards Kurdistan.”
Estimated as 30-million people, Kurds are believed to be the world’s largest ethnic group without a state of their own. Iraqi Kurds number some five million people living in area rich with natural resources.
The only country to have so far openly declared its support for Kurdish independence is Israel. But Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has afterwards stated their verbal support for Kurdistan didn’t translate into real help for Iraq’s Kurds to achieve their longtime goal of statehood.
Turkey, Kurdistan’s strongest ally to the north, has also shown indications, though in much less clear terms than Israel, that it would welcome an independent Kurdish state next door.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has said that Iraq has practically ceased to exist as a unified entity, an outcome for which he primarily blames Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri Maliki, a Shia.
Mr. Erdogan’s party spokesperson has gone beyond that, saying that it’s simply up to Iraq’s Kurds to go for their right of self-determination.
Fuad Hussein, chief of staff for President Barzani who was accompanying Mustafa on his Washington trip earlier this week, has told Rudaw they have conveyed a clear message to Washington that Kurds are going ahead with planned referendum on independence.
In his first address at the Kurdistan Parliament in nearly five years, President Barzani called upon the region’s lawmakers to set a date for the referendum as soon as possible. He had previously predicated that preparations for the referendum would take longer than a few months.
It’s yet to be known what the questions of the referendum would be or whether there would be any options, other than independence, for Iraq’s Kurds. Hussein said confederation -meaning more political autonomy and “economic independence,”- is the least desirable outcome for the Kurds at the moment.
“Whatever the people of Kurdistan decide is going to be respected by everyone in Kurdistan,” said Hussein at the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Representation in Washington, adding that the implementation of the referendum’s result might take a bit longer depending on political circumstances in Iraq and the region.
Based on previously unofficial polls, most Kurds are expected to vote for independence from Iraq should Kurdistan go ahead with the vote.
A separate plebiscite is also expected to be held in the so-called disputed, oil-rich territories such as Kirkuk, where Kurds are now de facto governors, to decide whether people of those predominately Kurdish areas also want to be part of Kurdistan.
Should Kirkuk, which produces more than a half-million barrels of crude a day, join Kurdistan, the new Kurdish state would likely be a strong oil-rich economy neighboring Turkey, which is heavily dependent on foreign oil and gas.
“Very good,” said Hussein in response to a reporter’s question on how he describes his latest meetings with U.S. officials.
