Pointing to the recent visit of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Leader and former Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani to the regional states and the central government in Baghdad, Masoud Abdul-Khaliq that the visit shows Barzani is seeking to mend ties with Baghdad after the independence referendum of the region on September 25, 2017.

He further added that the Kurdish officials in Kurdistan Region were expected to play a good role in Baghdad after the fall of Baath Regime in 2003 but they failed to do so as they followed the policy of separation from Iraq, adding that the situation has changed and the Kurdish officials are seeking to mend their ties with Baghdad, particularly after Adil Abdu-Mahdi, a friend of the Kurds, was elected as new Iraqi Prime Minister and Kurdish prominent politician Barham Salih was elected as president and Muhammad al-Halbusi, Iraqi Parliament Speaker is a friend of the Kurds and the triangle is able to uproot tensions between Erbil and Baghdad.

Abdul-Khaliq continued to say that the ‘failure’ made Kurdish officials to revise their policies as it was under the threat of a big danger, adding that Turkey has deployed a large number of forces into the region and the threat of Ankara is looming large over the region and its residents and all the people of the region and political parties have understood the threat.

The Kurdish political analyst further warned that Turkey is seeking to annihilate Kurdish identity everywhere in the world and Ankara is boosting religious affairs in order to change the current nationalistic viewpoint in the region, underscoring that Iran, however, is not following such a policy and the politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran would provide the interests of the Kurds in Iraq better.

He stressed that the Kurdish leadership, particularly in the yellow region (where the KDP rules), had not understood the reality but the leadership has find out the reality and is changing its policies and strategic outlook and approach.

Abdul-khaliq added that the KDP leadership has understood that it has analyzed regional and world affairs wrongly as it thought the U.S. is seeking to achieve its goals through war but the KDP now knows that the U.S. is not seeking war but other ways, for example, political pressure and other ways in order to make changes in the Middle East and the U.S. would definitely fail in achieving the goal and the U.S. in no way can change the ruling system in Iran.

He went on to add that Barzani has understood regional realities and the U.S. policy in the region and the KDP would surely go under dramatic changes.

Reporter’s code: 50101