We want people of Kurdistan to succeed, gain independence: Israeli Official

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Israel and the people of Kurdistan share a decades-long friendship, and we want them to succeed in their ambitions of gaining independence, a prominent Israeli politician said in a recent interview with Kurdistan 24.

“Well it’s not a secret that Israel and the Kurds are good friends for decades,” Tzachi Hanegbi, Israeli Minister for Cooperation and a member of Likud in the Knesset, stated.

“We wish the Kurds to implement all their ambitions, and to be independent, and to be able to put an end to the ongoing suffering of the Kurdish people,” he added.

Hanegbi also discussed Iran’s threat in the region.

“We have to stop the entrenchment of Iran in Syria,” he said, echoing recent remarks made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who called for Tehran to withdraw its forces from Syria immediately.

“We have to put an end to the nuclear ambitions of Iran, and it calls for [the] United States leadership and for the whole world to unite behind the president of the United States,” the Israeli politician said.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump announced Washington’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a pact meant to curb Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

The deal was signed under the Obama administration in 2015, with signatories including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and China.

However, since taking office, Trump has criticized the deal and threatened to scrap it before announcing his decision to do so on May 8.

“In Israel, [we] are very much aware of the ambitions of Iran to destabilize the region, and we are working hard to prevent them from success,” Hanegbi noted.

Tehran is closely aligned with Damascus. It views the Syrian regime’s continued rule as vital to its regional ambitions, and it has supported President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s seven-year-long civil war, just as it supported Bashar’s father, Hafez al-Assad, before him.

Indeed, it was an Iranian-Syrian combination that drove Israel out of Lebanon, following Israel’s 1982 invasion of that country, as it aimed to expel the PLO from Beirut.

Israel succeeded in that objective, but a new terrorist threat then emerged in the form of the militant Shia organization, Hezbollah, which began as an Iranian-Syrian proxy force and presently wields very considerable influence in Lebanon.

Now, Israel is determined to eliminate Iran’s military presence in Syria and has conducted at least five strikes against Iranian positions since September.

Commenting on a possible US withdrawal from Syria, Hanegbi said it was “important for the United States to stay relevant in the region in order to help us all prevent terrorism, violence, and fanaticism.”

(Kurdistan 24 team in Washington DC conducted the interview)