US Secretary of Defense reiterates support for Kurdistan

[Anthea]

Mattis reiterates support for Kurdistan in meeting with Barzani

Kurdish President Masoud Barzani and US Secretary of Defense James Mattis held an hour-long meeting on the sidelines of the 53rd Munich Security Conference in the German Bavarian capital on Friday.

This was the first such meeting between top Kurdish and US officials since the new administration took office in the White House.

General Mattis, who has previously served in Iraq, most notably led the US Marines into battle in the Iraqi city of Falluja in April 2004.

According to a statement issued by the office of the Kurdish president, Mattis said he “was familiar with the Kurdish cause and that Kurdistan and the US had made sacrifices side by side,” while also “reiterating his country’s support for the people of Kurdistan.”

The statement said Barzani and Mattis also discussed security and the Mosul offensive.

The US defense chief wished to visit Kurdistan Region in the near future, it said.

Kurdish officials have said they are hopeful the new US administration will remain committed to its support for the Kurdistan Region despite global uncertainty surrounding the future of US engagement in the world after President Donald Trump took office last month.

Trump’s largely isolationist rhetoric, particularly during his presidential campaign last year, has drawn world-wide attention.

Former US Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who visited Erbil late last year on a farewell trip to the Kurdistan Region, said the US was committed to its obligations under its defense agreement with the Kurdish Peshmerga forces battling Islamic militants.

The United States signed a deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in July last year to provide the Peshmerga forces battling ISIS militants with military and financial assistance worth an estimated $415 million.

Former US Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey who is currently a member of the US Defense Policy Board told Rudaw on Friday that Washington “supported the unity of all the sovereign states in the Middle East including Iraq and Syria.” The US also enjoyed “a very, very strong relationship with the Kurdistan Regional Government,” Jeffrey added.

Jeffrey who also attended the Munich conference said the US was “very concerned” with the ties between the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which he said Washington viewed as “a terrorist organisation.”

“That’s a concern for Turkey, that’s a concern for us,” Jeffrey said, referring to relations between the two Kurdish factions.

Ankara has in the past viewed PYD as an offshoot of the PKK, which has been banned in Turkey since the early 1980s.

http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/18022017