KRG will ‘never forget’ UK assistance in challenging times: Minister 

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will “never forget” the assistance the United Kingdom provided the Kurdistan Region during its times of hardship, the Region’s Minister of Interior, Reber Ahmed, said on Thursday. 

In a speech he delivered at the 96th birthday and Platinum Jubilee of the UK Queen Elizabeth II ceremony held in Erbil, Ahmed highlighted the difficult periods during which the UK supported the Kurdistan Region. 

The UK was an integral part of the US-led Operation Provide Comfort, which saved hundreds of thousands of Kurds from “wholesale massacres” by the Saddam Hussein regime in 1991, Ahmed said. 

The UK also helped the US remove Hussein from power in 2003, which helped create a “prosperous region, here in Kurdistan,” he added.

When ISIS attacked the Kurdistan Region in 2014, the UK again provided much-needed support to the Kurdish Peshmerga forces to help it fend off the militant group. 

“We will never forget the steadfast assistance you have provided,” Ahmed told the audience, which consisted of top British diplomats in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region and Kurdish officials. 

Ahmed hailed the Kurdistan Region-UK partnership by recalling the “successful” diplomatic visits, including Prime Minister Masrour Barzani’s visit to London in April. 

British Consul General in Erbil David Hunt said Barzani’s visit “set a really ambitious forward agenda” between London and Erbil for the years to come. 

During his visit, Prime Minister Barzani was warmly received by his British counterpart Boris Johnson and numerous senior British officials.