MESOP : HIGHLIGHT OF THE CHARME OFFENSIVE – AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN FAVORS KURDISH STATE

Israel willing to recognize an independent Kurdistan

June 29, 2014 – ARA News Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan – Israeli officials expect an independent Kurdish state to emerge in northern Iraq, especially after the recent events in the country where most of the west and central Iraqi provinces (where the Sunni Arabs constitute majority) have been seized by militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).According to local Israeli media, the Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, told his U.S. counterpart John Kerry during their meeting in the French capital Paris on Thursday, that the Iraqi state is on the verge of disintegration and division, and a Kurdish state “will emerge” amid that division.

It is likely to Israeli observers that the State of Israel may be the first among world countries to recognize the expected Kurdish state, and would seek to establish strong relationships with Iraqi Kurds.

Talking to ARA News, Dara Sheikhi, Kurdish political activist, stated that the Kurds were far from religious extremism throughout their revolutionary history against the states which usurped their homeland “Kurdistan” despite their exposure to terrorism from those countries.

“By the start of the Kurdish revolution led by the Kurdish leader, the immortal Mullah Mustafa Barzani, about five decades ago, Kurds had relations with the United States and Israel, which is the best proof of anti-extremism,” Sheikhi said. “Kurds are reaping the fruits of that (moderate) policy to the present day.”

According to Sheikhi, “the experience of democracy in Kurdistan proved to the whole world that the Kurdish people deserve and are capable of running  their state. So, the Kurdish leader’s (Mustafa Barzani) relationship with those countries is not a crime the Kurds are to blame for. We will build friendships with any state that shows willingness, and we are not concerned about the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

Sheikhi told ARA News that the recent visit of President Massoud Barzani to several Western countries persuading many of them that Kurdistan is not able any more to live with Iraqi parties linked to terrorism, and it’s time to declare the independent state of Kurdistan away from the axis of Islamic extremists.

“The Kurdish people seek freedom and peace, and Barzani conveyed a strong message to the western powers that their real interests are with the Kurds in Iraq, thus an independent Kurdistan is becoming a reality. Impressions of willingness to recognize a Kurdish state became apparent among the western powers,” Sheikhi argued.

The Israeli-Kurdish relations date back to the seventies of the last century, during the outbreak of armed clashes between the Kurds and the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party.