Tabnak – While international concerns have been in the rise over Kurdish Iraqi officials’ plan to conduct independence referendum, Israel and the US have appeared to be the only states supporting Kurdish claims. Meanwhile, Turkey has intensified its response to the latest Kurdish actions.
According to Anatolia News Agency, Massoud Barzani, president of northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, has met with General Joseph Leonard Fotel, commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), with whom he discussed the fight against ISIS and the region’s upcoming referendum on independence.
According to a statement issued by Barzani’s office late Thursday, the meeting -- held in Erbil, the Kurdish region’s administrative capital -- tackled several recent developments in the wider Middle East.
The US has voiced concern that the poll could serve as a "distraction” from other pressing regional issues -- especially the fight against terrorism and the stabilization of war-weary Iraq. However, it’s proved that Washington’s only problem is with the timing of the referendum, not its very nature.
At the same time, the US military is reportedly building a new permanent base in Iraq’s Kurdistan as part of attempts to perpetuate its occupation of the conflict-ridden Arab country indefinitely.
Iraq's Kurdish-language Rudaw television network reported on Tuesday that the base is being constructed in Kariz village of Zummar district, located 60 kilometers northwest of Mosul, stressing that 60 percent of the work has already been done.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told a delegation of US Republican congressmen on Thursday that he is in favor of an independent Kurdish state in parts of Iraq.
According to The Jerusalem Post, Netanyahu expressed his "positive attitude” toward a Kurdish state in the Kurdish areas of Iraq, saying that the Kurds are a "brave, pro-Western people who share our values.”
However, Turkey’s foreign minister says his country expects the administration of Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region to cancel the referendum. Mevlut Cavusoglu, who is on a visit to Baghdad, made the remarks on Wednesday at a press conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Ibrahim al-Ja’afari.
He said he would travel to the region later in the day to communicate Ankara’s expectation to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)’s President Massoud Barzani.
Kurdistan is to hold the plebiscite on September 25. The central government in Baghdad is opposed to the vote. Many regional and international players, including Turkey and Iran have joined the chorus of disapproval, saying such partitioning could be the last thing a war-scarred Iraq needs.
