"Kurds are giving blood and flesh in the war against ISIS"

ERBIL (K24) - The Chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council, Masrour Barzani, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published on Friday noted that fervor in defense of Kurdish homeland and people was the key to the Kurdish military success against Islamic State group (IS) better known as ISIS.

American daily newspaper on Friday quoted Masrour Barzani saying that fervor has been "the only reason that we as the Kurds still exist," against the “radical, terrorist, extremist ideology” of Islamist militants. The Chancellor was referring to other fights Kurds had fought in the past, notably against the former Iraqi Baath regime.

Speaking to WSJ's Sohrab Ahmari in the Iraqi - Syrian border, in the aftermath of a Kurdish - anti-IS coalition victory in the town of Shingal (Sinjar), Masrour Barzani stated that Peshmerga forces have retaken 7,700 square miles of territory in Iraqi Kurdistan. When successes of Kurdish forces counted in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) across the border, that figure doubles, he added. Barzani said combined Kurdish - coalition efforts have removed about 20,000 ISIS fighters from the battlefield.

The Kurdish intelligence chief warned, though, defeating Islamic militancy cannot be achieved only on the battlefields and the West has little to offer as help in ideological terms. He said, “If Islam does not accept what ISIS is doing” then Muslim scholars "have to talk to their own people, to say ‘Islam rejects this. You cannot terrorize people.’ ”

Masrour Barzani complained about the shortage of military equipment and ammunition that Kurds need. He criticized the American approach to the relationship between the federal government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil, which in military terms too often hampers the fight against IS.

“We are giving blood. We are giving flesh. We are giving lives, which are much more valuable than any weapons system," he said. To win the war, the West, and particularly the United States must provide better weapons to the Kurds, he reiterated.

In appreciation of the American-led removal of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, Barzani said "the Kurds are probably the most pro-American people that you can find,” in the Middle East. “Forever we will be thankful for the U.S. support," he added.

Upholding the Kurds' right to self-determination, Masrour Barzani emphasized that they "won’t settle for any less" than statehood. He told WSJ that Iraqi state has alway been a "failure" because the different components brought together to make it never had common grounds.

Masrour Barzani emphasized what Kurds want is not more than what Arabs, Turks, and Iranians have; he said that it is "unjust" to deny the Kurds independence. It does not have to be achieved by fighting, he added.