John Bolton: Iraq has collapsed, US should support Kurdish aspirations

24-07-2016
Rudaw
 senior republican politician and former US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton. Photo: Rudaw
senior republican politician and former US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton. Photo: Rudaw
Tags: Erdogan coup attempt John Bolton Iraq
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Speaking to Rudaw's Washington correspondent Namo Abdulla, senior republican politician and former US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said that he is concerned about the ways Turkish president has been dealing with this month’s coup attempt.


“I am extremely concerned about the suppression of the coup,” Bolton said. “I am concerned about the direction that president Erdogan is taking.”

He added that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “has cleared the board of any political and intuitional opposition. Turkey has been in its secular days a staunch ally of the United States.”

Bolton who is now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute said that Iraq has broken up as a country and hard to put back together.

“I think the government of Iraq has collapsed,” he said. “I don’t think it can be put back together. I have said the Kurds in Iraq have demonstrated being capable of governing themselves. I don’t see them ever going back voluntarily.”

He said that the decision to stay or separate from Iraq is a decision for the Kurds to make, adding: “But I believe the United States should be supportive of their legitimate aspirations.”

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