ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US President Joe Biden's top challenger in the Democratic Party primaries, Representative Dean Phillps, said on Tuesday that he is hopeful Vice President Kamala Harris, if she is the country's next leader, will hear the voices of others in the world, including Kurds.
"We've been partners with the Kurds. And I know we have some challenges, but I think only those changes can be solved if we sit face-to-face, and I do hope Vice President Kamala Harris, soon to be President Harris, does that sooner rather than later," Phillips told Rudaw on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
Phillips is the ranking member of the US House subcommittee on Middle East Affairs.
"It is important that Americans and its next leaders open their ears, their hearts, and minds not to propaganda, not to the most significant lobbyists or to the most powerful leaders in the world, but to really hear the voices of others - whether they be protesting in the streets here in Chicago or whether it be Kurds in Kurdistan relative to Baghdad," he said.
The congressman garnered more support than any other candidate in the Democratic Party's primary election this year, so he controls the second-most delegates at the convention.
The United States and the Kurdistan Region have historic relations, recently focused on the former's support for the latter's fighting forces, the Peshmerga.
Diyar Kurda contributed to this article.
