Time for an Independent Kurdistan as a Buffer against Iran
Syrian Kurdish woman YPJ fighter
An independent Kurdistan would be a bulwark for the US and ally Israel as we, chaver Sherkoh Abbas, President of the Kurdish National Assembly of Syria (KURDNAS) and Former Reagan National Security Council senior official , Prof.Norman Bailey of the University of Haifa in Israel have espoused.
As Rachel Avraham points out in this Washington Times article, an independent Kurdistan could thwart iran’s drive to create a Shia crescent from the Persian Gulf through Iraq and Syria, with the aid of Hezbollah, Afghan and Iraqi Shia militia under the control of the Quds Force commanded by General Qassem Soleimani.
A start to that would be the establishment of a US controlled safe zones in the predominately Kurdish northeastern Syria and Russian one in the Northwestern enclave of Afrin. That was proposed by David Keleti and this writer in a March 2017 Israel Behind the News Interview.
That would be enabled by the existing tactical air fields that US coalition air units use in northeast Syria to fly missions in support of the 50,000 YPG Kurdish led Syrian Democratic Force now being armed by the US for the push to retake Raqqa, the administrative capital of the Islamic State.
Kurdistan in northeastern Syria could assist in covert operations of Kurdish resistance forces in adjacent northwestern Iran in the Zagros mountains.it could protect the back door into the predominate Yazidi area of Sinjar in adjacent Iraq.
If the Kurdish safe zone could be extended to the Mediterranean coast in Syria it would facilitate shipment of both Syrian and Iraqi Kurdistan produced oil for export to Israel and the West via a network of pipelines.
A free Kurdistan could also develop into a commercial agricultural bread basket for the region.
We bet the estimated 300,000 Israelis of Jewish Kurdish legacy like MK Mickey Levy would kvell about an automous independent Kurdistan.
An independent Kurdistan would serve as buffer against Iran
In order to assist the creation of a Shia Crescent from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, the question remains: Is Iran working to thwart the creation of an independent Kurdistan? Are they working together with Syria in order to further this strategic goal? According to an Iraqi source, Iran is working to thwart the creation of an independent Kurdistan by trying to instigate a civil war among the Kurds by supporting groups opposed to Masoud Barzani. They are doing this because they perceive Kurdish autonomy in Northern Iraq to be a threat and they view the internal divisions among the Kurds to be the most effective way to destroy the dream of an independent Kurdistan for the Kurds presently are not united.
As Iranian journalist Mohsen Behzad Karimi related, “They will not tolerate at any cost an independent Kurdistan. An independent Kurdistan in Northern Iraq means joining Syrian Kurds and eventually after that, Turkish Kurdistan and Iranian Kurdistan will be annexed to that. Some Arab countries are using this issue to pressure Iran but in the long run, it is just a pressure tool. They are using Iranian Kurds, Iranian Arabs and Balochis to have leverage.”
Among the groups that Iran is using to pressure Mr. Barzani is the Gorran Movement and the PKK. “The Gorran Movement is primarily under the control of Iran,” Syrian Kurdish dissident Sherkoh Abbas proclaimed. “They were fighting against corruption and they are now taking all of their funding from Iraq and Iran. It is the same with the PKK, who is under the influence of Iran. They are fighting against an independent Kurdistan in Iraq. They are against a referendum for independence. This Iranian interference is intimidation so they don’t do a referendum and they won’t have access to sea.”
“The Iranian regime since the 1980s supported the Talabani faction,” Karimi stressed. “They helped lots of other Iranian-backed Kurds in Northern Iraq. There are still factions of Iraqi Kurds backed by Iran. If you check the ammunitions and light weapons, most of it comes from Iran. They deeply penetrated into Kurdistan. For example, the insurance companies are mainly in the hands of Iranian-backed companies, who are operating under the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.” (Read More)