World Service - Can Lindsey Graham, the influential Republican US senator, be called a "friend of the Kurds"? A review of his positions, legislative proposals, speeches and official statements over more than a decade shows that Graham was one of the few American politicians who consistently defended the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Syrian Democratic Forces as Washington's strategic partners, and even proposed legislation to support them. However, his support for the Kurds never meant support for the independence of Kurdistan or all Kurdish political and military movements; rather, it was defined within the framework of US national security interests, the fight against ISIS and maintaining Washington's credibility with its allies.His sudden death at the age of 71 has once again raised the question of what Graham's place was in the history of US-Kurdish relations and whether he can be considered one of the closest friends of the Kurds in the United States Congress?
