ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani called Germany “an exemplary friend” and called on it to help develop industry and agriculture in the autonomous Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq.
In a meeting with Dieter Lamle, the German consul general in Erbil, Barzani thanked the government and people of Germany for “providing effective assistance to Kurdistan’s Peshmerga forces in the fight against the terrorists,” a statement from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said.
Germany, which hosts the largest Kurdish Diaspora community in Europe, is among a growing number of countries to break ranks with the United States in directly arming or cooperating militarily with Iraq’s Kurds.
In his meeting with the German consul, Barzani called on Germany “to help the Kurdistan Region establish its industrial and agricultural infrastructure.”
Kurdistan’s war with the Islamic State (ISIS) group has devastated its economy: before an attack by ISIS a year ago next month, Kurdistan was the only peaceful portion of Iraq, its economy flourishing and businessmen referring to it as the “next Dubai.”
The war – and a tsunami of some 2 million refugees and displaced it has washed into Kurdistan, has diverted precious resources from developing agriculture and industry.
Lamlé welcomed boosting bilateral relations in parallel with “military and humanitarian assistance,” the KRG statement said.
Germany has emerged as one of the main suppliers of arms and ammunition to the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, with deliveries including the highly effective MILAN anti-tank system.
The effectiveness of the Franco-German weapons system has been widely praised by Kurdish commanders, especially in stopping deadly ISIS armored-car bombs, which used to take the deadliest toll on the Peshmerga.
Germany is among a growing group of countries that are overtly or covertly working with the Kurds in the war against ISIS, while the United States insists on sticking to its policy of weapons deliveries through the central government in Baghdad, leading to delays the Kurds say is hampering the war to stop ISIS.
Earlier this month, a high-ranking Iraqi Kurdish official confirmed that several Arab countries are closely cooperating with the Kurds to counter ISIS, as the region loses faith in the US-led campaign against the militants.
Hemen Hawrami, a close advisor to the Kurdish president, refused to name the Arab countries that are "directly coordinating" with the Kurds.
"Based on their wish, we will not reveal their names. But yes, several Arab countries are in close coordination with us to counter ISIS" he said, speaking to Rudaw at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Last week, Britain’s The Telegraph newspaper quoted a senior official from an Arab country that is part of the US-led coalition against ISIS as saying that regional countries are ready to take the war against the militants into their own hands.
“If the Americans and the West are not prepared to do anything serious about defeating ISIL, then we will have to find new ways of dealing with the threat,”the newspaper quoted the unidentified official as saying.
He said that the "new way of dealing with the ISIL threat" is directly arming the Kurds in Iraq.
Kurdistan has suffered well over 1,000 Peshmerga deaths and thousands wounded in the war to stop ISIS.
