KRG Envoy: Good rapport between President Trump and President Barzani

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – US President Donald Trump and the President of the Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, hit it off well on a personal level, when they met Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 

Read More: Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani meets Donald Trump in Davos 

“Both presidents were very warm with each other, very friendly,” explained Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, Representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Washington.

Abdul Rahman talked with Kurdistan 24 later that day, after she spoke with colleagues, who had attended the meeting of the two leaders.

They also “both showed appreciation for each other’s countries, for each other’s peoples,” she continued. “President Trump described the Kurdish people as a great people. President Nechirvan Barzani thanked the US for supporting the Peshmerga, supporting us in the fight against ISIS.”

Their discussion was wide-ranging, including the “current situation in the rest of Iraq” and the “wider neighborhood”—Iran, Turkey, Syria, and even Saudi Arabia and Jordan. That was in addition to “the fight against ISIS,” as “terrorism is not over.”

“They also discussed how the Kurdistan Region and the United States can have much greater cooperation on the economic front,” Abdul Rahman stated, as she stressed, “That’s also a very significant development.” 

“Many Firsts” 

Wednesday’s meeting between Trump and Barzani was the first between the two men. It was also the first meeting between the US and Kurdish presidents since May 2015, when Masoud Barzani visited Washington and met with US President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden (Biden has a long-time relationship with the Kurds and once described Masoud Barzani to this reporter as a “good friend of mine.”)

This was also Trump’s first meeting with an entirely Kurdish delegation. Until now, Trump’s meetings with Kurdish officials took place, when they were part of an Iraqi delegation—as when Trump saw Safeen Dizayee, head of the KRG’s Department of Foreign Relations, at the United Nations in September. Dizayee was part of a group led by Iraqi President Barham Salih. 

Read More: KRG participates in meeting world leaders in New York 

Salih, too, was at the Davos conference, but Trump held separate meetings with the Iraqi and Kurdish leaders. The Kurdish envoy also explained that the KRG Mission in Washington has “had a lot of meetings recently” with different departments of the US government, dealing generally with the issue of “how we can broaden our relationship with the United States.”

“We want to keep the security relationship that we have” with Washington, she continued. “This is essential, because ISIS remains a threat.”

Moreover, the Kurdistan Region still has a humanitarian crisis, and it continues to need support from USAID and American NGOs to support the large number of displaced persons who have found refuge there. 

Read More: Kurdistan still home to 1 million displaced; annual cost nearly $1 billion: KRG 

In addition, “the Yezidi and Christian communities,” as Abdul Rahman explained, “feel much more confident, when there is US engagement in Kurdistan and Iraq,” and “they will be reassured by the meeting” in Davos.

But “Kurdistan has much more to offer the United States,” she affirmed, as “the United States has to offer Kurdistan.”

“So I’m hoping that the relationship will continue to be strong and will broaden.”

Editing by John J. Catherine