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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Former US ambassador to Iraq Douglas Silliman said on Thursday that the core message of the letter Kurdistan Region Prime Minister reportedly sent to the US President Joe Biden is about threats against the Kurdish government from Baghdad and Tehran, adding that Biden will understand Barzani's message.
Al-Monitor reported on Tuesday that Barzani had sent a letter to Biden earlier this month, warning him that the Kurdistan Region could collapse, calling on the US President to mediate between Erbil and Baghdad through the “significant leverage” his administration retains with Baghdad.
The Kurdistan Regional Government has neither denied or confirmed if Barzani sent such a letter.
“I think the core message that Kak Masrour was sending to President Biden was that the autonomy of Kurdistan is at risk, that there are forces in Baghdad and forces from Iran and elsewhere that seem to wish to weaken the Kurdistan Region. So I think that that is a message that President Biden will understand and appreciate but this is one of the things many Kurds don’t appreciate,” Silliman told Rudaw’s Sima Abkhezr on Thursday, clarifying that he had only seen press reports about the message.
“Washington will still look at the Kurdistan Region as a part of Iraq. It is … We will continue to support economic development in Kurdistan, support, as I just said, the development of the united units of the Peshmerga, and try to help the Kurdistan leadership craft better messages, better coordinated messages with Baghdad but the work will have to be done by the political leadership of Iraqi Kurdistan,” added the former diplomat.
However, he noted that “The United States is not going to dictate what it can do in regard to Kurdistan but we very much support negotiation of agreements between Erbil and Baghdad on oil revenues, on money coming from Baghdad to pay salaries of the Kurdistan Region employees.”
Tensions between Erbil and Baghdad over the Kurdistan Region’s disputed share of the federal budget intensified in recent days after the Iraqi government said it would not pay the salaries of the Region’s civil servants who have yet to receive their July salaries.
After days of war of words between the regional and federal government, a top delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) arrived in Baghdad on Thursday. The delegation was headed by Prime Minister Barzani and included his deputy Qubad Talabani and relevant ministers. They aimed at reaching a final agreement with Baghdad over the Region’s financial entitlements.
“We are hopeful,” Prime Minister Barzani told Rudaw’s Halkawt Aziz when briefing reporters about the result of his rare trip to Baghdad. “Let’s wait until all the meetings end. I am very very optimistic that good decisions will be made during [Iraq’] Council of Ministers’ meeting next week.”
Rudaw has learned that the next meeting of the Iraqi Council of Ministers will be held on Sunday.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani told reporters earlier this week that he and PM Barzani have both been working with Baghdad on the issue of budget.
‘Stability of Kurdistan’
Silliman said that the “stability of Kurdistan is very important to the United States,” adding that this goes back to even before the invasion of Iraq by Washington in 2003.
“We have found the Kurdistan Region to be friendly, we have found the Kurdistan Region to be supportive. We have found collectively, as Americans, business opportunities in the Kurdistan Region, better deals, more lucrative, and a much better business environment.”
The former ambassador noted that the stability of the Kurdistan Region is also important for Iraq and the region.
“The problem is that I think that the leadership in Kurdistan has not always used the power that Kurdistan as a region and Kurds as a people were given in the Iraqi constitution. There have been, for decades, differences among different parts of the Kurdistan Region, different fractions. And they have sometimes used Baghdad to strengthen their hand over the hand of another Kurdistan,” he said.
He called on Kurds to be unified.
“So I think that probably the best strategy for the Kurdistan Region now is to try to speak with a unified voice with regard to Baghdad. So if Kak Nechirvan, Kak Masrour are travelling to Baghdad, it is important that they carry the same message and that other Kurdish leaders in Baghdad and who go to Baghdad have very closely-coordinated messages for the government in Baghdad from the Kurdistan Region,” he said.
Kurdistan Region has for decades been seen by Western countries as “the other Iraq” due to its unique security and co-existence, in addition to rapid economic development.
No military intervention
The US-led global coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) has been supporting the Kurdish Peshmerga forces since 2014. Washington has also provided financial support to Peshmerga. However, the former US diplomat warned that this does not mean that Washington will fight against Baghdad in favor of Kurds.
“I think that if Iraqi Kurds believe that the United States is going to militarily intervene on behalf of the Kurdistan Region against Baghdad, that is very unlikely to happen,” he said. “But I will note that the United States has now for a long time provided very significant military assistance to the Peshmerga. We are frankly, as a government, paying a good portion of the salaries of the Peshmerga in unified units.”
Some 30,000 Peshmerga fighters receive their salaries from the US government.
He also said that his country does not have any agreement with any country or region to protect their systems militarily.
“We don’t have that with other allies in the region either - Saudi Arabia, Israel, the UAE. We don’t have that kind of relationship with any countries other than those in the NATO alliance. So Iraqi Kurds should not expect the United States to come to rescue Kurdistan unilaterally,” said the former ambassador. “We will work with Erbil, we will work with Sulaimani, We will work with Baghdad and try to facilitate and encourage discussions that will lead to a better deal for Kurdistan.”
Peshmerga reforms
Kurdistan Region’s Western allies have repeatedly warned the Kurdish leadership that they have to make reforms in the Peshmerga forces - which are widely affiliated to the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
The Dutch consul to Erbil last month warned that the Region could lose international support if the unification of the force fails.
“The problem with the continued divisions, particularly between Erbil and Sulaimani, is that only parts of the Peshmerga has come under the purview of these unified units and other parts of Kurdistan maintain their own independent Peshmerga which are not coordinated with these unified units or the other parts of Kurdistan,” Silliman said.
“So from even from a security standpoint, divisions within the Kurdistan leadership have made it much more difficult to provide a united front on security issues when talking to the Iraqi interior ministry, Iraqi defence ministry, the Hashd al-Shaabi or sort of other quasi-military units,” he added.
Peshmerga Minister Shoresh Ismail from the PUK, submitted his resignation from the position late last year citing constant meddling of political parties in the ministry’s affairs. He is no longer filling the role even though his resignation has not yet been officially accepted by the Council of Ministers.
The failure to appoint a new minister is believed to be related to tensions between the KDP and PUK, after the latter appointed Rebaz Birkoti as a replacement of Ismail but the KDP-controlled Council of Ministers and the parliament refused to greenlight the move.
In July, the US State Department said Washington is concerned about intra-Kurdish tensions in the Kurdistan Region and the major impact they have on the pace of Peshmerga reforms, and that such concerns have been communicated with senior Kurdish officials.
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