NETANYAHU BACKS AN INDEPENDENT KURDISH STATE
▶ A Kurdistan would give Israel a strategic ally in the region and undermine the spreading influence of Iran
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that Israel supported an independent Kurdistan, ahead of a referendum that Baghdad rejects.
“Israel supports the legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to attain a state of its own,” Mr Netanyahu’s office said.
Two days ago, Israeli justice minister Ayelet Shaked said Israel and western countries had “major interest in the establishment of the state of Kurdistan”.
Ms Shaked encouraged the US to support the process, referring to the referendum on Iraqi Kurdish independence planned for September 25.
An independent Kurdistan would give Israel an ally in the region and undermine Iranian influence in Iraq.
But Mr Netanyahu’s office said yesterday that Israel rejected the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and considers it a “terrorist organisation”, taking a similar position as Turkey, the US and the EU.
That was at odds with recent remarks made by former Israeli defence forces deputy chief Maj Gen Yair Golan.
In Washington on Thursday last week, Mr Golan expressed support for Kurdish independence and said the “Kurdish PKK fighting Turkey is not a terrorist organisation”.
Prof Yossi Mekelberg, a senior associate fellow at the British think tank Chatham House, said: “Israel’s main relations with the Kurdish regional government lie in economic and geostrategic interests”.
“Israel doesn’t want a strong Iran in the region and finding an ally in Iraq’s Kurdistan region will weaken Tehran,” he said.
Since the 1960s, Israel has maintained discreet business, intelligence and military ties with the Kurds, and regards the minority ethnic group – which is split between Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran – as a buffer against mutual Arab adversaries.
Future relations between the two will be “opaque and will mostly lie within intelligence and military ties, and will be geostrategic only”, Prof Mekelberg said.
This was not Mr Netanyahu’s first endorsement of Kurdish statehood. In June 2014, he called for “an independent Kurdistan as part of a broader alliance with moderate forces across the region”
It was a position that appeared to clash with the US efforts in trying to keep war-torn Iraq united.
“We should support the Kurdish aspiration for independence,” Mr Netanyahu said at the time, while describing Kurds as “a nation of fighters who have proved political commitment and are worthy of independence”.
Kurds have sought an independent state since at least the end of the First World War, when colonial powers divided up the Middle East after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Like Jews, Kurds share a history of statelessness and persecution. Many believe that their shared culture and language can be best preserved within an independent state.
Neighbouring states, including Turkey and Iran, and the central Iraqi government in Baghdad, have opposed Kurdish aspirations for independence out of fears that it would destabilise the region.
Even the US and other western states who have friendly relations with the Iraqi Kurdistan government have openly opposed the coming referendum, arguing it will distract from the war against ISIL.
But despite this, Kurdistan Regional Government president Masoud Barzani has vowed to press on with the vote.
The Kurds plan to hold the referendum in the three governorates that make up their self-ruled region – Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Dohuk – and disputed areas that are controlled by Kurdish forces but claimed by Baghdad, including the oilrich province of Kirkuk.
Israel’s main relations with the Kurdish regional government lie in economic and geostrategic interests PROF YOSSI MEKELBERG Chatham House think tank