ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit Tuesday to the Iraqi autonomous region of Kurdistan, seeking its leaders’ support for an inclusive government in Baghdad, has given Erbil a strong say in what happens in Iraq.
“The Kurd participation in the governing formation process is very, very important,” Kerry said in an interview with the BBC after meeting with Kurdish President Massoud Barzani.
“The Kurds have been very key to helping to draw a line against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL). They’re cooperating in the security arrangement, and I think it’s very, very important to touch all of the bases,” he told the BBC.
“Because of some of the internal politics of Iraq right now, it was important for me to come here, and I’m glad I did.”
Barzani was quoted as telling Kerry that, “We are facing a new reality and a new Iraq,” – a comment seen as a rejection of US hopes of unity among Iraq’s different factions, and of keeping the country from splitting into Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish portions.
Iraq has been plunging deeper into turmoil since Sunni insurgents that include the radical ISIS captured its second-largest city, Mosul, a fortnight ago, starting a juggernaut that has seen the Iraqi army collapse and large cities and territories falling to the rebels.
On Tuesday, the rebels had captured the Baiji refinery, Iraq’s largest, from Iraqi forces that largely collapsed and deserted in the very beginning of the fight for Mosul.
The security situation in Iraq is extremely fragile. According to the United Nations, over the past 17 days an estimated 1,075 people have been killed, while the online Iraqi Body Count said it has recorded 3,000 deaths in the same period due to violence.
In an interview with CNN, Kerry played down Barzani’s comment that Iraq is facing a “new reality.”
“Even President Barzani today, who is opposed to the prime minister (Nouri al-Maliki) made it clear that he wants to participate in the process, that he wants to help choose the next government,” he was quoted as saying.
“Other leaders that I met with were all engaged and energized and ready to go to bat for a new governance. So while he says there's a new reality, the new reality is that they are under attack from ISIL and they have realized that they cannot continue with this sectarian division,” Kerry added.
He also reiterated that forming a new Iraqi government would be fundamental for any US intervention in Iraq.
“The key is, if you don’t have a viable government, that is a unity government that is not going to repeat the mistakes of the last few years, whatever we might choose to do would be extraordinarily hampered,” Kerry said.
Maliki, who has been backed by the United States until now, and who met with Kerry in Baghdad on Monday, would not say if the US has asked him to step down.
The embattled Shiite premier has insisted in all his interviews that Washington would not meddle in the formation of a new government, following recent elections that preceded the current turmoil.
Maliki had said he would be seeking a third term, and his latest comments did not appear to indicate he has changed his mind.
“It’s not up to the United States of America or some other country to come prancing in and tell Iraqis who their leaders ought to be or what they need to do,” Kerry told BBC.
“Basically, there must be a government here so that there can be a strategy going forward, because just a (US) strike alone is not going to change the outcome. You need to have a full-fledged strategy that is being implemented which is principally a political strategy,” he added.
Kerry noted that Erbil also has insisted on a political solution.
However, the Kurds are unlikely to be easily led into backing Maliki, with whom they have had nothing but problems and have come close to war. They have insisted the premier must step down; the ISIS has vowed to march on Baghdad to overthrow his Shiite-led government.
In a CNN interview aired Monday, Barzani said, “It is time now for the Kurdistan people to determine their future,” the strongest statement he has made regarding independence from Iraq, which has been a perennial Kurdish aspiration.
"Iraq is obviously falling apart anyway, and it's obvious that a federal or central government has lost control over everything," Barzani told CNN.
The avowed aim of the ISIS is to establish an Islamic state that straddles both sides of the Iraqi border. They have seized city after city, including border posts to Syria, where ISIS is also involved in fighting against the Damascus regime.
Meanwhile, the three-province Kurdistan Region, which has a population of about five million and its own government, parliament, army and constitution, remains the only peaceful and economically prospering portion of Iraq.
