Israeli PM lobbying world powers to stop attack on Kurds

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is lobbying major powers to support Kurds as they suffered multiple assaults since the beginning of the week, according to Israeli officials.

Netanyahu and his advisers have reportedly been raising concerns about the current situation in Kurdistan with their German, Russian, French and American counterparts, Israeli officials told Reuters.

Following the Oct. 16 assault on the multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk by Iranian-backed Shia militias and Iraqi Forces, the Israeli Prime Minister discussed the Kurdistan Region’s referendum on independence and its aftereffects with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Israeli officials also noted that Netanyahu spoke about the Kurds in Iraq’s plight with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and that the issue has been raised with the Trump and Macron administrations.

According to an Israeli government official, Israel has “security interests in Kurdistan,” given its proximity to Tehran and Damascus.

“This (territory) is a foothold. It’s a strategic place,” the official told Reuters. He said Israel wanted to see Iraq’s Kurds provided with the means to protect themselves, including weaponry for which they have long requested.

On Friday morning, the Shia Hashd al-Shaabi militia and the Iraqi Forces launched an attack on the Kurdish Peshmerga Forces in the town of Prde, also known as Altun Kupri, in the latest advance against the Kurdistan Region.

Kurdish officials have called on the international community to intervene, stressing that the Shia paramilitary groups were using US-provided weapons and military equipment and Iranian artillary against the people of the Kurdistan Region, causing nearly 100,000 people to flee their homes. 

The Peshmerga’s General Command decried Baghdad’s misuse of its more sophisticated and available weaponry, which was given to the Iraqi Forces with the aim to defeat the Islamic State (IS), “not the people of the Kurdistan Region.”

“The issue at present is to prevent an attack on the Kurds, extermination of the Kurds and any harm to them, their autonomy and region, something that Turkey and Iran and internal [Shia] and other powers in Iraq and part of the Iraqi government want,” Netanyahu’s intelligence minister, Israel Katz, told Tel Aviv radio station 102 FM on Friday.

Israel was the only country to back the Kurdistan Region’s Sep. 25 referendum on independence.

“They (Kurds) are a deeply pro-Western people who deserve support,” said another Israeli official to Reuters.

Editing by Ava Homa