President of the Kurdistan Regional Government Massoud Barzani (L) meets with US President Barack Obama at the Oval office, White House. (File photo)<\/p>\n
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) must prove its ability to run an independent state in order to win Washington\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s support against Baghdad, a US think tank says.\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cNot since the second decade of the 20th century has the Kurdish dream of independence appeared so attainable,\u201d American Enterprise Institute (AEI) researcher Michael Rubin wrote in an article published on May 10.\n<\/p>\n
Rubin referred to the KRG\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s oil revenues following the downfall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the Democratic Union Party’s growing domination over much of Syrian Kurdistan amid the foreign-fueled crisis in the country, and Turkey\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s recent peace deal with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) as major factors paving the way for the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan.\n<\/p>\n
He also recalled how US Vice President Joseph Biden, while still a Senator, famously proposed and supported a plan to split up Iraq into three Sunni, Shia and Kurdish-run regions.\n<\/p>\n
The author stated that given such a background, Iraqi Kurdish leaders expect many former US officials — \u00c5\u201cwho are heavily invested in Kurdish oil\u201d — to take side with the KRG in its disputes with Baghdad.\n<\/p>\n
The article attributed Washington\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s nonchalance to officially support the breakaway of the already autonomous Kurdish region to the KRG\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s failure to put Kurdish statehood before internal issues and family relations.\n<\/p>\n
It also advised the KRG to appoint a charismatic and able representative to head the Kurds\u00e2\u201e\u00a2 Washington office and warned against implications that President Masud Barzani is indispensible and might stay in office beyond a legal two-term limit.\n<\/p>\n
Rubin suggested that a transfer of power in Arbil could demonstrate that \u00c5\u201cKurdistan is rich not only in oil resources, but also in human capital,\u201d and convince the US and other Western powers that Kurdistan is ready for statehood.\n<\/p>\n
MRS\/AS
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