US Vice President Mike Pence has described his visit last weekend to Erbil as strengthening bonds “forged in the fires of war”. The unannounced visit, which did not include a visit to Iraqi officials in Baghdad, carries significant meaning for Kurdistan and the wider region.
Many are wondering why Pence skipped a visit to Baghdad’s top three officials, the prime minister, speaker of parliament, and president, instead flying straight to Erbil to meet Nechirvan Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Region.
A White House official provided a diplomatic answer, saying the US vice president could not greet Iraqi government officials due to the violent crackdown on protesters across Iraq’s south. But this is not true, because a few weeks ago the same Mike Pence hugged Turkish officials who attacked Rojava while the cries of the young Mohammed, whose whole body was burnt by white phosphorus, were echoing across the world.
Instead, this visit was more related to Trump and his administration’s changes and review of its policy in Iraq and Syria, including the role Kurds want to play in both countries.
In the last few days, I spoke with some European politicians and other people with close links to the center of European decision making. They are also discussing the changes that Trump and his administration are making, in particular after the strategic blunder in Syria by withdrawing from Kurdish-held areas in the north and leaving the area by and large to the Russian. The Europeans said that this was the continuation of the mistakes that the previous administrations made in Iraq and leaving the country to Iran.
In the Middle East, Kurds have suffered the most harm due to the foreign policy failures of the recent US administration and Trump’s failure to understand the issues facing the region. The US itself has suffered too and its policy which was devised over many years by its strategic planners have mostly been unraveled.
This happened especially after the US turned its back on Kurds in 2017 and when Turkey attacked Rojava this year which caused the US to lose the trust of its allies around the world. French President Macron’s recent comment in which he called on Europeans to depend less on the US and more on themselves is another example to prove Trump’s wrong policy with Kurds and the harm that Washington turning its back on Kurds caused the US.
Pence is not an ordinary member of the Trump administration and he is not only the vice president. Currently, he is the implementer of Trump’s new foreign policy, especially in the Middle East. Although attempts to remove the US president are unlikely to succeed, Pence could become the interim US president until elections are held. Trump has already said that if he wins a second presidential term, Pence will be re-instated as vice president. Therefore, when the incumbent US vice president and the would-be president or vice president of the country only visits the president of the Kurdistan Region in an unannounced trip to the Middle East, it is not a normal event and not a protocol visit.
One of the reasons behind the trip is Nechirvan Barzani’s personality and agenda, which aims to keep a balanced and effective policy for Kurdistan Region in both Iraq and the world. Therefore, you can see him with Qatar’s Sheikh Tamimi one day and with Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed another day. This is very hard as the region is divided into friends and foes.
In his message to Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi, Iraqi President Barham Salih, and parliamentary speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, Pence asked them to “stay away from Iran”.
Although he knows that Erbil also enjoys good relations with both Tehran and Ankara, his message to the president of Kurdistan Region was that he wants to maintain good relations with Kurds. His president’s message to the president of Kurdistan Region was that he wants to maintain his relations with Kurds which were “forged in the fires of war”.
In the framework of the changes expected to happen in the future, Kurdistan Region can play a significant role in Iraq and the region. The Trump administration’s new policy, recent protests in the region, and Turkey’s offensive in Rojava are not past events, so the Kurdistan Region have to prepare itself for their consequences.
Translated by Karwan Faidhi Dri.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
