Mike Waltz, Good Friend of the Kurds, Named as Trump’s National Security Advisor
Waltz, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces officer, has long been a strong supporter of the Kurds, as Kurdistan 24 has regularly reported.
Nov. 12, 2024
WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) The Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal all reported on Monday that President Donald Trump has asked Rep. Mike Waltz (R, Florida) to be his National Security Adviser.
Assuming that information is correct and Waltz accepts, it is very good news for the Kurds.
Waltz, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces officer, is a member of the Kurdish Caucus in the U.S. Congress and has long been a strong supporter of the Kurds, as Kurdistan 24 has regularly reported.
Marking the 30th Anniversary of Operation Provide Comfort
Waltz first entered the U.S. Congress in January 2019, succeeding Ron DeSantis, who ran for and was elected, governor of Florida.
Waltz’s support for the Kurds soon became manifest. The year 2021 marked the 30th anniversary of Operation Provide Comfort, which arose out of the 1991 Gulf War that drove Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait.
The George H.W. Bush administration made an horrific decision at the war’s end. It believed that after such a huge defeat, Saddam would be overthrown in a military coup.
Read More: The US Watches, as Saddam Crushes the Uprisings: 25th Anniversary
But there was no coup, and after Bush called a premature ceasefire, Saddam moved against the Kurds, who had rebelled against him. The population feared Saddam would use chemical weapons against them (as he had against the Shi’ites in the south), and they fled en masse to the borders with Turkey and Iran.
That terrible scene is what prompted Bush to reverse course and send U.S. forces back to Iraq to implement Operation Provide Comfort.
In 2021, Waltz introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives to mark Provide Comfort’s 30th anniversary. After passing the House, it moved into the Senate. which hailed the “important partnership between the US and Iraqi Kurdistan.”
Unfortunately, however, the resolution was never approved by both houses in the same term. Initially, the House approved it, but the Senate did not. Subsequently, the Senate approved it, but the House did not.
Exporting Kurdish Oil
In August 2022, Waltz, along with two other Congressmen wrote Secretary of State Antony Blinken a letter calling on the Biden administration to support the KRG against pressure to curtail its energy production that was coming from Iran and pro-Iranian parties in Baghdad.
Read More: Congressmen call on Biden administration to support Erbil in energy disputes with Baghdad
In February 2023, Waltz, along with two other Congressmen, wrote another letter, this time to President Joe Biden. They called on his administration to do more to back the Kurdistan Region in its disputes with Baghdad, while also calling for a tougher policy toward Iraq in order to counter Iran’s strong influence.
The letter noted Tehran’s success in suborning Iraq’s Supreme Federal Court and turning it into a vehicle of Iranian influence.
The Court, thus compromised, made several important rulings against Kurdish interests. One such ruling involved the KRG’s oil exports. The court decided that they were unconstitutional.
That ruling did not stop Kurdish oil exports, but it clearly threatened them. So the Congressmen asked Biden, “How will the US protect US-financed energy investments in the Kurdistan Region?”
It was a subsequent decision, made by the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce’s International Court of Arbitration (ICC-ICA), that actually halted Kurdish oil exports. In March 2023, the ICC-ICA ruled against the KRG, prohibiting its export of oil through the Iraq-Turkish pipeline.
Following that ruling, Waltz called on the Biden administration to press Baghdad strongly in order to oblige it to agree to the resumption of Kurdish oil exports.
“The Biden Admin must apply real pressure on the Government of Iraq to reopen oil exports for the Kurdistan Region,” Waltz tweeted. “US dollar transfers to Iraq by the @USTreasury, repeated sanctions waivers, and designations of key individuals & entities must be on the table.”
The Biden Admin must apply real pressure on the Government of Iraq to reopen oil exports for the Kurdistan Region. US dollar transfers to Iraq by the @USTreasury, repeated sanctions waivers, and designations of key individuals & entities must be on the table.
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) April 13, 2023
Supporting Erbil in Disputes with Baghdad
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shi’a al-Sudani paid his first visit to Washington last spring. In advance of that visit, Waltz and seven other Republican Congressman, including four senators and three other representatives, wrote yet another letter to Biden.
The letter detailed Baghdad’s abusive measures toward the Kurdistan Region and called on Biden to press Iraq to end them.
“The Iraqi government is actively working with Tehran against our Kurdish allies,” they wrote Biden. “While you invite the Iraqi Prime Minister to visit Washington, you have refused to meet with Kurdistan Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, a critical partner and the host of the most U.S. forces in the region.”
The cooperation between Baghdad and Tehran includes “cutting off” federal government funds due the Kurdistan Region, they added, “while closing the Iraq-Turkey pipeline.
“You should focus on reducing Iranian influence in Iraq and shoring up support for our partners in Kurdistan,” and “as a pre-condition-of any visit by Prime Minister al-Sudani, you should require the immediate reopening of the Iraq-Turkey pipeline so that the Kurdistan Region is able to export oil, and U.S. public and private financing are no longer threatened by Tehran’s influence in Baghdad.”
If Waltz is able to implement even a fraction of these policies, that will go far in straightening out a long-misguided U.S. position that has failed to effectively advance U.S. interests, while it will serve as a great boon to the Kurds.