Kurdistan Region asks US to end one-Iraq policy, KRG senior official

WASHINGTON, DC – The United States of America should end its one-Iraq policy and instead have two different policies in Baghdad and Erbil as there are two different ruling governments with two different agendas, Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to the Kurdish president, told Rudaw on Wednesday.

 

Hussein is currently on an official visit to the US, and has met with a number of senators and congressmen, including Richard Burr, Chairman of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Senator Jim Risch, a member of the Senate Committee on Intelligence and Foreign Relations. 

 

“We suggested that that the United States of America should have a broader policy,” Hussein told Rudaw in Washington. “That it would have to have a two-window policy in Iraq: a window towards Baghdad and a window towards Erbil. And this two-window policy is at the same time good for America in the future. It is good for Kurds, as well for Baghdad, because in the end there are two different things, two different policies in Baghdad and Erbil.”

 

He refused to confirm or deny that his appearance in the US is in preparation for a possible visit by President Masoud Barzani to Washington. However, he said such a visit needs “work” and “preparation”, while hoping for a visit of the Kurdish president. 

 

Barzani met with the US Vice-President Mike Pence in late February when both leaders attended the Munich conference on security, the first high level meeting for Kurds with a member of President Donald Trump’s administration since he assumed office in January.

 

A senior advisor to Barzani told Rudaw following that meeting the Kurdish president "seriously discussed" the issue of Kurdistan independence with Pence.

 

“The question of Kurdistan’s independence was seriously discussed,” Hemin Hawrami said who also attended the meeting in February. “President Barzani discussed this issue with the US Vice President very seriously.”

 

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Representative to the United States, Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, who accompanied Hussein, said that perception in Washington is that Kurds have many friends both in the congress and the new administration. 

 

“I can say on a general level that the relations between us and the United States are very strong, and very good,” Rahman said. “Many of the people we meet in here, they themselves tell us that ‘you Kurds have many, many friends in the congress, you Kurds have many, many friends in the government,’ from the two main political parties.”