OBAMA : „Never ever anger the mullahs!” (MESOP) / US Does Not Support Kurdish Referendum for Independence

03.07.2014 – BasNews, Washington – The United States wishes to support a unified Iraq, but is not happy with the announcement made by the Kurdish president Massoud Barzani to hold a referendum on Kurdish independence, a US spokesperson said Tuesday.US Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf reiterated that the US is opposed to Iraqi Kurds seeking independence from the central government in Iraq.

“Well, as we’ve said many times over the past few weeks, we believe that a unified Iraq is a stronger Iraq,” she said in a press conference in Washington.

“And when [Secretary of State John Kerry] was there during his trip to Erbil, Kurdish leaders indicated they would participate in the government formation process,” Harf continued, “and that they would help find a means of having a unified government that can bring people together to deal with not only the political crisis but also the crisis that ISIL has caused with security.”

The Kurdish president is to address the Kurdish parliament on Thursday.Moreover, the US government does not see the failure of the Iraqi parliament meeting held July 1 to form a government in which Kurds and Sunnis walked out due to frustration.“Well, we never said they should put a deadline, that they should form a new government entirely by July 1. The secretary used that date in terms of when they should begin government formation.”

Nevertheless, the US wants the Iraqi leaders to form a government as fast as possible.

Barzani’s chief of staff Fuad Hussein met with US State Secretary John Kerry on Wednesday.

In a public seminar hosted by the Washington Institute, he confirmed the Kurds will work on a new government in Baghdad and to strengthen Kurdistan’s security forces and an independent economy.

“We hope that the people here in Washington understand that these paths do not contradict each other, but in the end the people of Kurdistan have the right of self-determination and have the right to decide the future of Kurdistan and the Kurdish people,” he said. Hussein agrees with the message of the chief of Foreign Relations Fallah Mustafa: Iraq is not united anymore, and that the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has to go.

“The new reality is that Iraq is not Iraq anymore. If you want to bring Iraq together, then there must be a new structure, a different structure.” Hussein went on to say that, “you cannot work together if you have an Islamic state between Kurdistan and Baghdad,” referring to the new borders between the Kurds and the Islamic militant group, the Islamic State (IS).