Below is the opening statement by US Consul General Irvin Hicks, delivered before an interview with Rudaw’s Shaho Amin on Monday. As Consul General, I and the consulate team are proud of the partnership we have established with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), members of civil society, representatives from the media, and leaders of Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s business community. As the largest donor of humanitarian assistance in Iraq ($3.4 billion since 2014), we (the United States) continue to see opportunities to bolster our diplomatic, military, cultural, educational and trade relations with the people of the Kurdistan Region, but we are also concerned about backsliding in the areas of human rights, gender-based violence, the rule of law, equal treatment for women, equal opportunity for members of the Kurdistan Region’s minority community, as well as tolerance and respect for its diverse religious community. The US and the people of the Kurdistan Region share common values that include Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Included in these values is freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the right to assemble and hold one’s government accountable---peacefully. You have heard me often say that “a house united shall always prosper,” and I am proud of the consulate’s initiative to attract American trade and investment to the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. We will host an American trade mission in June and, as of Sunday, we established the American Chamber of Commerce Network in partnership with the chambers of commerce for Erbil, Duhok, Sulaymaniyah, Halabja and the American Chamber of Commerce Kurdistan. This AmCham Network will serve as an advocacy group to promote and identify trade and investment opportunities between American and Kurdistan business leaders throughout the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. Finally, I would like to congratulate the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leadership for last week’s signing of the terms of reference for the Peshmerga MOU. The collaboration between the PUK and the KDP highlights the importance of establishing a strong and effective Peshmerga and the US looks forward to even more progress on the Peshmerga MOU initiative. We also look forward to the KDP and PUK settling their differences so that we can continue to deepen and expand US-Kurdistan Region relations. I would also like to congratulate Kak Bashdar Hassan Ismael and his legal team for receiving the Department of State’s 2023 Human Rights Defender award. The US government’s engagement, friendship and partnerships in the Kurdistan Region remains strong and we are expanding our relationship with the Region by building a $800 million new consulate compound, increasing the number of senior-level VIP visits from Washington, DC, bolstering the capabilities of the Peshmerga, collaborating with like-minded consulates to promote human rights, freedom of the press, and equal rights and opportunities for women and minority groups, providing $2.3 million to repair the Yazidi Temple in Lalish, continuing our support of more than $28 million for the reconstruction and stabilization of Sinjar [Shingal], supporting the KRG’s digitization initiative to improve government services, attracting American trade and investment missions and business groups to the Kurdistan Region, identifying programs to address renewable energy and climate change challenges, expanding the U.S. government’s educational and cultural exchange programs, donating $650,000 to the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, broadening our media and journalism training programs, and ensuring that our diplomatic engagements and programs include Sulaimani, Halabja, Duhok as well as Erbil. I have been in the Kurdistan Region as Consul General for just five months, and the list of initiatives I just highlighted dispels any notion that the US government is withdrawing from the Kurdistan Region, Iraq or the region. In fact, we are doing quite the opposite.
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