MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : KURDISH REGIONAL GONVERNMENT = PUK AS USUAL PRO IRAN – WHILE BARZANI KDP PARTY TRIES TO BE NEUTRAL

KRG walking a tightrope between US and Iran

A diplomatic balancing act has grown more challenging and risky in the month since Soleimani’s assassination.

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Massud Barzani (r), meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Erbil on Jan. 15, 2019. (SAFIN HAMED/AFP/Getty Images)

By Cathy Otten, Rawaz Tahir and Mohammed Hussein of Iraq Oil
Published Thursday, January 30th, 2020

ERBIL/SULAIMANIYA – Recent hostilities between the U.S. and Iran have forced Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) into treacherous diplomatic terrain.

Like many political entities in Iraq, the KRG’s two main ruling parties have traditionally sought to maintain balanced relations with the U.S. and Iran — aware of the security and economic risks that would arise from alienating either one. But now there is new pressure to take sides.

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