PM Barzani to visit Germany next week

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – The Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Nechirvan Barzani, is to visit Germany next week, where he will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday.

German Deputy Government Spokesman, Georg Streiter, announced the visit on Friday, and a senior source from the office of the KRG Prime Minister confirmed the visit to Kurdistan 24.

The two leaders will discuss the fight against the Islamic State (IS), as well as German involvement in the region, Streiter told DPA, the German News Agency.

The German army, the Bundeswehr, is currently involved in training the Kurdish Peshmerga, and last Tuesday, the German parliament, the Bundestag, extended the Bundeswehr’s training mission.

The following day, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, speaking to the Berlin Forum on International Policy, called on Baghdad “to move away from the rule of sectarian militias.”

Many countries are concerned about Iranian expansionism in the Middle East in the wake of IS’ defeat.

French President Emmanuel Macron publicly called on Baghdad to dismantle Iraq’s Iranian-backed militias, when a KRG delegation, led by Prime Minister Barzani, visited Paris in early December.

And Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in a recent visit to Paris, also warned of Iran’s unchecked aggression, and particularly of the “land bridge” that it is developing to Lebanon.

Speaking on Wednesday at the Jamestown Foundation, former CIA Director Michael Hayden, complained that the US did not seem to have a plan for post-IS Iraq and Syria. He noted that absent a meaningful policy, the result would likely be an “Iranian-controlled land bridge” to “Hizbollah-controlled Beirut.”

Indeed, in an address the day before to the Atlantic Council, US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, made an astonishing admission: the State Department—which is the lead US agency on this issue—was unprepared for IS’ defeat!

Tillerson noted that the more aggressive posture adopted by the Trump administration had accelerated the defeat of the terrorist organization.

“As a result of the military success,” Tillerson said, “we in the State Department have really had to run fast to catch up with the military success with the diplomatic plans as to what comes after the defeat of [IS].”

European leaders seem to be stepping into that breach.

British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke with Prime Minister Barzani, via telephone on Monday and invited him to London.

In the phone call, both sides discussed “the Kurdistan referendum, relations with Baghdad and counter-terrorism,” according to the UK government’s press office.

“Prime Minister [May] said that she would be pleased to see Prime Minister Barzani in London in due course to make further progress on these matters,” the spokesperson affirmed.

Editing by Laurie Mylroie