Former Cheney Aide: Strong ties needed between US and Kurdistan Region

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – John Hannah, National Security Advisor to former Vice-President Dick Cheney, emphasized the importance of a “strong US-Kurdish bilateral relationship.”

Speaking to Kurdistan 24, Hannah, now Senior Counselor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, affirmed that it was “absolutely essential” that the confidence which was lost between Erbil and Washington following Baghdad’s assault on Kirkuk last year be “rebuilt.”

Hannah stated that the attack had been an operation engineered by Qasim Soleimani, head of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), using Iran’s “proxies inside of Iraq.”

However, the Trump administration turned a blind eye to the assault—despite just having designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization.

Hannah described Washington’s passivity as a serious error. Indeed, John Bolton, then a private citizen, but now White House National Security Council Adviser, blasted US inaction at the time.

Last October, already the day after the assault on Kirkuk, Bolton complained on Fox News that the assault had been “the Iran-dominated government in Baghdad, along with their regular forces and Shia militias, attacking our allies, the Kurds.”

Quite possibly, if Bolton had been in the White House then, the US position would have been different.

Hannah also noted the role played by divisions among the Kurds, which “the Iranians and the Iraqis were able to exploit.” But “having said that,” he continued, “the United States is an important player, an important friend to the Kurds.”

At this point, Hannah explained, “the United States needs to force a serious negotiation with the Kurds and the Iraqi government” to improve security in Kirkuk.

“I don’t know any other way to do that,” he said, “than to make sure that the Kurds, and the Peshmerga in particular, have a very large role to play in the future of Kirkuk.”

Indeed, the Kurdistan Region Security Council on Monday released statistics showing an increase in terrorist attacks by the so-called Islamic State (IS) during the month of September in Kirkuk and other disputed territories.

Asked about Iraq’s new president, Barham Salih, Hannah responded, “I think he’s a very, very good man, with a lot of respect in the international community.”

“I’ve been a partner with Barham for over 20 years in trying to think about the future of Iraq,” Hannah continued, explaining that Salih will need “the full backing of the United States and his friends in the West, if he’s going to be able to take” the “very strong stance” that is needed to “constrain Iranian efforts to dominate Iraq,” particularly through its support for Shia militias which “need to be brought under control.”

That will not be possible without the firm backing of the US president, indeed, the entire US administration, as well as America’s European allies, Hannah concluded.

(Interview conducted in Washington DC by Kawa Khidhir)

Editing by Nadia Riva