MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : TALABANI’S PARTY = AN AGENT OF IRAN ! – US Diplomat Warns of PUK Under Influence of Iran
Basnews English – 09/10/2018 – 12:25 – ERBIL — The United States Special Representative for Syria Engagement, James Jeffrey, has warned of the growing influence of Iran on the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), saying that the development is “a big and new fact”.
During a conference where Jeffrey responded to reporters, he discussed the political coexistence between the PUK and KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party) as the two major Kurdish political parties in the Kurdistan Region.“The PUK is broken down into various factions and, to some degree, is under the influence of the Iranians. That’s a very big and new fact that we’ve not seen in all of my time dealing with Kurdistan,” a video, which has resurfaced recently, shows Jeffrey making the remark.
“Even when Talabani’s PUK and Barzani’s KDP were fighting in 1996, and pulling in the Turks, the Iraqis and the Iranians, they still were coherent organizations that were capable of not only fighting each other but then very quickly forming the alliance that is remaining until now,” Jeffrey, who previously served as the US ambassador to Iraq between 2010 and 2012, said.However, Jeffrey believes that the new situation with respect to the PUK and its Iranian influence is “totally new” while Washington had not assumed the ties between the KDP and PUK could “endure trait”.
The panel during which Jeffrey makes the remarks was hosted by the Turkish Heritage Organization in October 2017 only two days after the Iraqi army and Iranian-backed militias of Hashd al-Shaabi overran the Peshmerga forces in Kirkuk in retaliation for Kurdistan’s landmark independence referendum.
The PUK was widely criticized back then for making a unilateral deal with Tehran and Baghdad to withdraw from Kirkuk without consulting its political partner, the KDP.