Politics

U.S. Reaffirms Strategic Partnership with Kurdistan Region

The Kurdistan Region is widely considered to be the most stable and successful part of Iraq, as a number of senior US officials have said in recent years.

Laurie Mylroie 2023/03/28 15:26

Vedant Patel, the US Deputy State Department spokesperson, speaking during a press conference. (Photo: Twitter/Patel's account)

USA

WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) – No president has assumed office more friendly to the Kurds than Joe Biden, and on Monday, State Department Deputy Spokesperson, Vedant Patel, reaffirmed the strategic partnership between the U.S. and the Kurdistan Region.

Kurdistan Region as Strategic Partner

“Iraq, including the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, is a strategic partner of the U.S.,” Patel said, “and we have a long-term commitment to this region.”

“We reaffirmed this” in July 2021, he continued, “in the Strategic Dialogue that was held when representatives of the two countries met to discuss strengthening our long-term strategic relationship, not only in security, but also in economic and trade issues, culture, education, environment, health care, and more.”

U.S. Appreciation of the Kurdistan Region

The Kurdistan Region is widely considered to be the most stable and successful part of Iraq. Over the years, senior U.S. officials have made a number of statements, quite a few of them suggesting that the Kurdistan Region has proven more successful and a better friend to the U.S.

The most important figure is Joe Biden himself. In late 2017, at a chance meeting at a local grocery store, Biden, then a private citizen, told this reporter, referring to his time as Barack Obama’s Vice-President, “Masoud Barzani is a good friend of mine,” and “I wished we could have done more for the Kurds.”

Other supportive statements include:

Lt. Gen. Jay Garner (US Army, Retired), who oversaw Operation Provide Comfort at the end of the 1991 Gulf War and then led the first US effort at Iraqi reconstruction in 2003, told Kurdistan 24 in 2016, “Kurdish Iraq is the Iraq we wanted to have. Kurdistan is what we wanted Iraq to be.”
Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster (US Army, Retired), as Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser, described in 2017 how the Kurdistan Region had flourished in the years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. “It’s a miracle, almost, what happened in Northern Iraq in terms of beautiful cities in Sulaimani, Erbil, and Dohuk,” McMaster said.
Joey Hood, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, told the U.S. Congress in 2019, “The Kurdistan Region could serve as a model for the rest of Iraq.”

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (Democrat, Illinois), who fought in Operation Iraqi Freedom as a helicopter pilot and lost both legs, visited Iraq in 2019, including the Kurdistan Region. It was her first visit there in fifteen years and upon returning, she said, “I think what the Kurds have been able to do sets an example” for the rest of Iraq.

John Hannah, National Security Advisor to Vice-President Dick Cheney, said in 2020, “We have a real partner in Erbil,” and “we need that same kind of partnership to be shown in Baghdad for us to be able to move forward.”

Thus, over many years, U.S. officials have recognized and paid tribute to the achievements of the Kurds in Iraq. On Monday, Safeen Dizayee, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Department of Foreign Relations, along with Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the KRG’s High Representative in Washington, met with US consulate officials to discuss the latest developments in the region.