Kurdish PM wants to discuss independence with Baghdad
Unity in face of ISIL terrorists but once battle to get them out of Mosul is over, statehood is top priority for the Kurds
BERLIN // Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous region plans to renew its push for independence once the city of Mosul is retaken from ISIL.
“The time has long been ripe for it, but we are currently concentrating on the fight against ISIL,” said Kurdish prime minister Nechirvan Barzani.
“As soon as Mosul is liberated, we will meet our partners in Baghdad and talk about our independence. “We have been waiting for too long. We thought that after 2003 there would be a real new beginning for a democratic Iraq. But this Iraq has failed.”
The premier of the Kurdistan regional government made clear his intentions in an interview with the German daily newspaper, Bild.
“We are not Arabs, we are our own Kurdish nation,” he said.
“At some point there will be a referendum on the independence of Kurdistan and then we will let the people decide.”
In February, Kurdish president Massoud Barzani called for a referendum on a Kurdish state in northern Iraq, raising tension with Baghdad, which opposes Kurdish secession. But the Kurdish peshmerga joined Iraqi forces in the offensive to retake Mosul from ISIL – a military operation that is far from over.
We have taken the outlying districts quickly but it is not clear how strongly ISIL will defend the city,” said Mr Barzani.
“We are seeing they have hundreds of suicide bombers.
“They must have entire factories where they are making the explosives. That is the greatest threat to the offensive.”
He estimated the coalition would need three months to recapture Mosul and requested more weapons from Germany for Kurdish forces and more aid from the European Union for refugees from the conflict.
‘ As soon as Mosul is liberated, we will meet our partners in Baghdad and talk about our independence Nechirvan Barzani Kurdish prime minister