Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal criticize US inaction on Kirkuk

WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) – Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) on Monday criticized the Trump administration’s hands-off attitude toward Iraq’s assault on Kirkuk.

Graham issued a statement, saying, “I’m very concerned about ongoing developments in Iraq regarding reports that the Iraqi military and Shia militias are advancing on Kurdish interests around Kirkuk.”

“This has the potential to further destabilize the region and expand the war in Iraq,” his statement continued, “all of which strengthens the hand of Iran.”

Graham’s Congressional colleagues, including Senators John McCain (R-Arizona) and Chuck Schumer (D-New York) also faulted Trump’s passive approach to the conflict between Baghdad and Erbil, which the US President articulated in a press conference Monday afternoon, as he stated, “We don’t like the fact that they’re clashing,” but “we’re not taking sides.”

Baghdad has the superior military equipment—supplied by the US—and the seeming US neutrality is, in effect, a tilt toward Iraq and against the Kurds.

Like McCain, Graham sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, as does Blumenthal who voiced his criticism of the Trump administration’s policy on Monday evening.

Asked by CNN host, Wolf Blitzer, to comment on Trump’s remark earlier that day about “not taking sides,” Blumenthal responded that “two of our allies” in the fight against the Islamic State (IS), “Iraq and the Kurds, the Peshmerga, which have been ferocious fighters” are now fighting among themselves, “and we ought to be mediating.”

Blumenthal continued, “We ought to take an active role in trying to bring together these two allies in the area, so we focus on the enemy that we share.”

Thus, criticism of the administration is bipartisan, although the Republicans’ critique seems to place greater emphasis on Iran’s considerable influence in Baghdad and its role in the assault on Kirkuk.

John Bolton, a conservative thinker since his college days at Yale and, much later, US ambassador to the UN under President George W. Bush, supported the Kurdistan independence referendum even before the September 25 vote, as he stated in an interview with Kurdistan24.

On Monday, Bolton explained to Breitbart News Daily Sirius XM host Alex Marlow, “Iraqi government forces and Shia militias dominated by Iran” were involved in the attack on Kirkuk.

“Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guards Quds Forces, is actually in the Kirkuk area coordinating the Iran-dominated military effort against the Kurds,” Bolton said.

“I wish we could get through to the White House and say, ‘You should support Kurdish independence,’” Bolton explained, “because Iran – our enemy in the region – is now attacking Kurds, our best friend. We are doing nothing. It’s a tragedy.”

Washington’s highly-regarded Institute for the Study of War noted that “Iran’s role in the offensive [on Kirkuk] further strengthens its influence within Iraq, sidelines the US, and will increase Arab Shiite popular support for Iranian-backed candidates in Iraq’s upcoming elections, currently scheduled for April 2018.”

The Institute also noted, “Iran’s use of an Explosively Formed Penetrator (EFP) against U.S. forces in Salah al-Din Province, southwest of Kirkuk, on October 1 likely signals Iran’s resolve to use force to deter the US from taking a direct military role.”

Since the US did not intend to intervene in the Iraqi-Kurdish conflict, Tehran may have failed to understand US policy. Or, perhaps, it has some other objective in mind, such as making the US presence in Iraq untenable, once IS is defeated.

Editing by G.H. Renaud