A New Iraq Will Emerge: Kurd Leader

During a conversation, Kurdistan’s president Massud Barzani has warned US secretary of State Jhon Kerry that a new Iraq will emerge as the country falls apart from the ISIS jihadists. Mr Kerry was making an unannounced visit to Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region on Tuesday, arriving in Erbil a day after talks in Baghdad with Sunni leaders and Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

“With these changes we are facing a new reality and a new Iraq,” Barzani told Kerry who is the first secretary of state to visit the Kurdish region since Condoleezza Rice in 2006. Greeting Kerry in his presidential palace, Barzani told the US diplomat through a translator that the Kurds seek “a solution for the crisis that we have witnessed.”

The militant offensive has cleared the way for Iraqi Kurds – who were once gassed by former dictator Saddam Hussein – to also take control of a swathe of disputed territory they want to incorporate into their autonomous region over Baghdad’s strong objections.
“As everybody knows this is a very critical time for Iraq and the government formation challenge is the central challenge that we face,” Kerry told Barzani. Kurdish forces were “really critical in helping to draw a line with respect to ISIL [Isis],” he added.

Barzani told CNN television ahead of Tuesday’s talks that Maliki should step down as “the one responsible for what has happened.”
“During the last 10 years we did everything in our ability… to build a new democratic Iraq, but unfortunately the experience has not been successful,” he said.Pressed on whether Iraqi Kurds would seek independence, Barzani told the US broadcaster: “The time is here for the Kurdistan people to determine their future and the decision of the people is what we are going to uphold.”

interactive editor