Zalmay Khalilzad: Decisions of Iraq’s Supreme Court Contradict Constitution

WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) – Last week, Kurdistan 24 spoke with Amb. Zalmay Khalilzad, a long-time figure in national security affairs, who rose to particular prominence following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. 

An Afghan-American, Khalilzad served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2004 to 2005 and then as ambassador to Iraq from 2005 to 2007. Subsequently, he was appointed ambassador to the United Nations, from 2007 to 2009, the last two years of the George W. Bush administration.

A decade later, after another Republican, Donald Trump, became president, Khalilzad was appointed Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation. He retained that position for the first nine months of the Biden administration, when he helped negotiate the understanding with the Taliban that allowed for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, after two decades of conflict there.

Decisions of Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court are Unconstitutional

Khalilzad became U.S, ambassador in Baghdad two years after the start of the U.S.-led war that overthrew Saddam Hussein and his regime—from June 21, 2005, to March 26, 2007.

Initially, Amb. Paul Bremer represented the U.S. civilian presence in Iraq. But Bremer proved to be a micromanager with little understanding of Iraq. As head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), he sought to run the country himself–which had not been Bush’s intent.

The war was intended to be a liberation, not an occupation. After a year, Bremer was removed. The CPA was ended, and sovereignty was passed on to Iraqis. 

John Negroponte, who had been U. S. ambassador to the U.N., became the ambassador in Baghdad. Negroponte served a year in that position, before becoming head of the CIA.

Khalilzad followed Negroponte in Baghdad. It was then that the drafting of Iraq’s post-war constitution was completed, and the document was approved in an Oct. 15, 2005, popular referendum. 

In his interview with Kurdistan 24, Khalilzad deplored Baghdad’s violations of the Iraqi constitution, including through the Federal Supreme Court, as he suggested that the court had made key decisions under Iran’s influence. 

Indeed, Michael Knights, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, called that Iranian maneuver, carried out in early 2022, which successfully suborned the court a “judicial coup.”

Thus, as Khalilzad told Kurdistan 24, “Iran is very involved in Baghdad” and it exploits the Supreme Court. The court imposes a centralization of authority that “undermines the basis of the constitution of Iraq,” which is premised on the opposite: on the principle of federalism, which involves a decentralization of authority. 

“I was the ambassador [then], very involved during the constitutional process,” Khalilzad said, “And these decisions go exactly in the opposite direction from what the constitution has said.”

Khalilzad advised Washington that it had “to be very attentive to what is being done,” in Baghdad, because it appears “Iran and the forces that Iran backs are behind” the court’s legal decisions that have been so adverse to Kurdish interests. 

“The budget agreement is being violated,” he said. “It is not being delivered on. The constitution is being violated. The government agreement is not being adhered to.”

Indeed, Brendan O’Leary, a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, makes a similar point. He argued, already in 2017, that federalism has not worked in Iraq, because Baghdad does not abide by its principles. 

The Iraqi constitution was intended to establish a decentralized, federal state, but as O’Leary explained, “Critical provisions” were “never applied” or “have been abused,” and “the system has not worked.”

Need for Kurdish Unity

Khalilzad also emphasized the need for unity among the Kurds. “It’s very important for the Kurdish groups,” and “I’m talking mostly about the KDP [Kurdistan Democratic Party] and the PUK [Patriotic Union of Kurdistan], to put Kurdistan first and work in a united fashion, when they operate in Baghdad.”

“One of the methods” used by those who “do not wish Kurdistan well” is “to use Kurds against each other, and that should not happen,” he said.

This is a point that the Kurdish leadership, itself, has stressed. Indeed, just last week, Masoud Barzani, long-time president of the Kurdistan Region, who remains head of the KDP, in an interview with the French radio station, Monte Carlo, stressed the importance of ending conflicts and creating unity within the Kurdistan Region.

Read More: Democracy in Iraq is under threat, says KDP President Masoud Barzani

Kurds Need Ability to Defend Themselves, or in Partnership with U.S.

Issa Chomani, who conducted the interview, noted to Khalilzad that the U.S had condemned the attacks carried out by Iran on the Kurdistan Region, asking if that was “a message to Iran and militia groups backed by Iran that the Kurdistan Region was a strategic partner of the United States”?

Khalilzad responded with a polite correction. It was important for the U.S. to say that, and “it sends a message, certainly,” but words alone are not enough.

“Kurdistan needs to have the capability, either itself or in partnership with its friends, to be able to defend itself,” Khalilzad said. “That's very important.”

Indeed, that was a key part of the agenda of KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani in his visit to Washington last week. 

As Treefa Aziz, head of the KRG mission in Washington, told Kurdistan 24, Barzani had asked for greater security protection and support. 

“As you know we have recent legislation” passed by the U.S. Congress, “to provide the Kurdistan Region with air-defense equipment,” she said. “So Prime Minister Barzani asked that the provision of this equipment be expedited.”

Read More: PM Barzani visit to Washington DC important, at a critical time, says KRG Rep. to the US

Khalilzad also stressed Iran’s aggressive posture toward Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region. 

“Iran has no respect for Iraqi sovereignty,” he said, “for the concerns and the autonomy” granted the Kurdistan Region in a “constitution passed in a referendum by the Iraqi people.”

Iran regularly violates “the rights to security of the people of Kurdistan and of the people of Iraq,” he continued. “That's something that we in the United States with our strategic interests in that region should be very concerned about.”