Kerry in Iraqi Kurdistan
June 24, 2014
On his second day in Iraq, the United States' top diplomat travelled to the north of the country, where he was scheduled to meet with Kurdish leaders. US Secretary of State John Kerry is pushing Iraq's Shiite-led government to agree to a power-sharing deal that would see the Sunni and Kurdish communities gain a stronger voice in national politics in a bid to prevent ongoing clashes between Sunni militants and the Iraqi military from becoming a full-blown civil war.
"The secretary's visit will be very important both to confer with the Kurdish leadership and also encourage them to play a very active role in this government formation process," a senior State Department official told reporters on Tuesday.
That would include "choosing a very strong president who can represent both Kurdish interests but also Iraqi interests," the official added.
Fighting between Iraqi security forces and Sunni militants associated with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) erupted this month when ISIS fighters launched an offensive, seizing control of a series of towns, the largest of which, Mosul, has two million inhabitants.
The autonomous Kurdish region is the only one to have held its ground against ISIS fighters in recent days. When the Iraqi army fled from the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk amid fears of an attack, the Kurdish military force Pershmerga took control of the city, allowing them to take disputed territory they have wanted to claim for their region.
Al-Maliki must go
Ahead of Tuesday's meeting, Kurdish regional President Massoud Barzani (pictured) told US news broadcaster CNN that Iraq could not move forward without Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki stepping down as he was "the one responsible for what has happened."
"During the last 10 years we did everything in our ability…to build a new democratic Iraq, but unfortunately the experience has not been successful," Barzani said.
Al-Maliki's Shiite-dominated government has been accused of fueling the crisis by excluding Sunni Muslims from power and pursuing a sectarian agenda.
US Secretary of State Kerry met with al-Maliki on Monday in Baghdad for closed-door talks.
"Iraq faces an existential threat and Iraq's leaders have to meet that threat," Kerry said. The comments coincided with news that the Iraq had lost control of it border with neighboring Jordan after Sunni tribes took the Turaibil desert crossing between the two nations.
The tribal leaders were reportedly in negotiations to hand the crossing over to ISIS, which already controls several main entry points to Syria. With ethnic Kurdish forces in control of a third border area with Syria to the north, it leaves an 800-kilometer (500 miles) stretch of Iraq's western frontier beyond the control of government troops.
kms/pfd (AP, AFP, Reuters)