The president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, has indicated that the Kurds intend to remain in control of Kirkuk, which peshmerga forces occupied earlier this month to defend it from the jihadist scourge:
Speaking at a press conference on June 27 with British Foreign Secretary William Hague in the Kurdish region’s capital, Irbil, Barzani said Kirkuk’s status “now is achieved.” Hague was visiting Irbil as part of a trip to Iraq aimed at convincing Iraq’s Shi’ite, Sunni, and Kurdish political leaders to bridge their differences. Britain and the United States are both urging the creation of a national-unity government that is “inclusive” and can quell sectarian tensions threatening to pull the country apart.
Barzani’s remarks, meanwhile, have fueled concerns that it may already be too late to patch up the divisions within Iraq. Kirkuk — an ethnically diverse city in northern Iraq — is part of disputed territory in northern Iraq that the Iraqi Kurds have wanted to incorporate into their autonomous region for decades. Successive governments in Baghdad have refused to put the oil-rich territory under the exclusive control of authorities in the Kurdish autonomous region. Such a move is also opposed by the city’s Arab, Assyrian, and Turkoman populations.
Meanwhile, the cause of Kurdish independence has found a supporter in Bibi Netanyahu:
In a speech to a Tel Aviv thinktank, Netanyahu said that the rise of both al-Qaida-backed Sunni extremists, as well as Iranian-backed Shia forces, had created the opportunity for “enhanced regional cooperation”. He said Jordan, which is facing a growing threat of spillover from conflict in neighboring Iraq and Syria, and the Kurds, who control an oil-rich autonomous region of northern Iraq, should be bolstered. “We should … support the Kurdish aspiration for independence,” Netanyahu told the thinktank, going on to call the Kurds “a nation of fighters [who] have proved political commitment and are worthy of independence”.
Israel has maintained discreet military, intelligence and business ties with the Kurds since the 1960s, seeing in the minority ethnic group a buffer against shared Arab adversaries.
The Dish 