John McCain: Washington will provide whatever Kurdistan needs

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (K24) – U.S. Congressman and Senate of Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain and his delegates met Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani on Monday in Erbil. McCain praised the role of Kurdish Peshmerga forces in their fight against jihadists.

KRG Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani and several other Kurdish ministers were also present for the meeting. McCain thanked the Kurdistan Region and Peshmerga forces that have been able to liberate large swaths of land from the Islamic State (IS) militants.  Especially the recent liberation of the Kurdish Yazidi town of Sinjar in Northern Iraq.

McCain expressed his condolences and sympathy to the family of Peshmerga victims, emphasizing that the United States will continue aiding Peshmerga forces.

United States delegates mentioned that the purpose of their visit to the Kurdistan Region is to be aware of the current situation of frontlines and the Kurdistan Region's needs. McCain stated that the U.S. will try to provide the needs that KRG requests from Washington.

In another part of the meeting, he praised the role of the Kurdistan Region’s people and government in welcoming internally displaced people (IDP) and refugees, and providing them basic needs in the best way possible.

The Kurdistan Region is now a home for more than 1.7 million IDPs and refugees that fled from the south provinces of Iraq and Syria to the region. Previously, PM Barzani pointed that IDPs and refugees now make up more than twenty percent of the Kurdistan Region’s population which is a big change in its demography.

Barzani thanked the delegates for visiting the Kurdistan Region and praised the military aid and training provided for Peshmerga forces by the United States. He hoped for more military aid to eradicate IS insurgents completely in the country.

Although the Kurdistan Region is heavily suffering from financial crisis now, the government has managed to provide basic needs for the displaced people fleeing to the region, Barzani said. He asked the delegates to lobby in the United States, and to provide more humanitarian aid to the Kurdistan Region to improve the affair of the displaced people in the region.

Commenting on Erbil–Baghdad relations, Barzani noted that the Kurdistan Region aims to have a good relation with the Iraqi federal government, and expressed the readiness of Kurdistan for any negotiations and talks to address the accumulated issues between Erbil and Baghdad.

The relation between Erbil and Baghdad started to get worse at the beginning of 2014 when the former Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki blocked the Kurdistan Region’s budget share, accusing Erbil of selling oil independently without referring to Baghdad.

The current situation in Iraq and the Middle East is another point of discussion in the meeting.