Farhang Fereydoun Namdar, a columnist for magazines such as the American National Interest and the online magazine of International Relations, has not ruled out the possibility of a US withdrawal from Iraq and the Kurdish region.
He believes that there are factors in the Kurdistan Region that have put pressure on the United States to withdraw from Iraq.
The Kurdish issues expert stressed that the increasing drone strikes in the Kurdistan Region against the position of US forces shows that the Kurdistan Region does not create a safe situation for US forces.
Therefore, the United States, which has established its largest consulate in the world in the Kurdistan Region, may be forced to leave the Kurdistan Region as it left Afghanistan. Namdar stressed that the Kurdish region and the region controlled by the Syrian Kurds are the last centers of American presence in Iraq and Syria. So, if the United States is forced to leave the Kurdish region, the way of cooperation with the Syrian Kurds will be ended and the region under the control of the Syrian Kurds will be destabilized, which could pave the way for Turkey to attack the Syrian Kurds again.
He pointed out that the lack of US support for the Kurdistan Region during the referendum weakened the region in the face of Baghdad and made the region to lose control over about 50 percent of the areas under its control, acknowledging that the Kurdistan Region was not capable of defending the US presence and "this shows that Erbil cannot guarantee the safety of Americans in the Kurdistan Region." The Kurdish affairs expert also noted that the Iraqi Kurdish region is in a weaker position than in the past due to some crises, such as the risk of conflict with the PKK, the increasing dissatisfaction with the KRG and the unresolved dispute with the Iraqi central government.
Farhang Fereydoun Namdar also said that the military situation in the Kurdistan Region is weaker than ever due to the continuing threats from ISIS, the inadequate armament of the Peshmerga forces in the Kurdistan Region and the non-timely payment of salaries to the region's military forces.
Referring to the Iraqi parliament's decision to withdraw US troops from Iraq, he said that if internal pressures continue, the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional parliament will be forced to make such a decision.
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