Kurdistan representative in US: One-Iraq policy damaging, fiction

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Representative in Washington, DC said the West and the US are blinded by the “one Iraq” policy.

During a speech at a University of Kurdistan-Hawler (UKH) conference, Bayan Sami Abdulrahman, the KRG representative in the US, stated America and the UK ignored the warning signs in the Iraqi constitution as the role of Kurds and Sunnis diminished in Baghdad.

Abdulrahman praised the US-led liberation of Iraq as it meant “a new period of democracy, of federalism, of equality, and of partnership.”

However, she mentioned, “We alerted our western friends [the US and the UK] that Iraq was going backward over the past decade, we saw the unraveling of the constitution, we saw reversals.”

“The election system was changed so that today it does not matter the turnout; it does not matter how many Sunni and Kurds will vote in the Iraqi elections,” Abdulrahman emphasized.

“The Shia will always be the majority, [and] the Kurdish parties are essentially competing among themselves and not allowed to compete nationally,” she continued.  

The Kurdish diplomat called the US’ belief in the one-Iraq policy a “fiction,” stating that “Iraq is not one, it has never been one.”

The one-Iraq policy was very damaging for all of Iraq, and particularly for Kurdistan, Abdulrahman affirmed.

She added that when the Islamic State (IS) emerged and took over one-third of Iraq’s territory, the Kurds found themselves neighbors with the insurgents.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany