MESOP : BRUCE RIEDEL’S FORECAST & OUR BIG QUESTION MARK ?

SOUTH KURDISTAN  – Iraq will Lose Its Kurdish North: CIA Former Officer – The invasion of Iraq was the first step taken towards breaking down the power balance in the region, Bruce Riedel says

Hiwa Ahmed – BasNews 15 Juli 2016 – LONDON — A Senior former officer of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for the Middle East said that drastic territorial shifting is under way in Libya, Syria and Iraq, forecasting that Kurdistan Region will secede from Iraq.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Bruce Riedel, a US senior former national intelligence officer for  Middle East and a renowned counter-terrorism expert, said that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 had already paved the way to splitting Arab countries, particularly Libya, Syria and Iraq. “Syria and Libya are underway to dissolution and Iraq will be losing its Kurdish North,” said Riedel. Regarding the situation of Iraq, Riedel argued that as long as Iran-backed Shi’ite Iraqi militias exist in the country, there will always be extremist Sunni groups like the Islamic State (IS).

Riedel explained that the division of Iraq into three separate states between Kurds, Sunnis and Shi’ites is in favor of Iran as it will facilitate the Iranian exploitation of the country.

“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) pushes forward with the separation of Iraq, deploying militant units to the heated zones and throwing off the national balance,” he said. Riedel believes that although Iraq would lose its Kurdish North, the rest of the areas will remain united. When asked by Asharq Al-Awsat on whether the Middle East is having its borders redefined by the US and Russian power, Riedel said that “with the evident chaos engulfing the whole region, it is not clear whether the Russians or the Americans are doing so, believing that the destruction and mayhem are playing the chief role in shifting territories even more than foreign influence is.” www.mesop.de