President Obama Visit to Kurdistan Region of Iraq Called for in Washington Post Opinion Column

Associate Editor Jim Hoagland Calls for Stronger U.S. and KRG Relations

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In an opinion article that appeared in the Washington Post on August 8, Associate Editor Jim Hoagland notes the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq provides a strong and balanced security position that can help achieve stability in the Middle East and also provides a strategic partnership for the United States.

"Nowhere is the lack of personal dimension in U.S. diplomacy more evident than in the strategic neglect of northern Iraq's Kurds, a people Americans can proudly claim to have liberated from Saddam Hussein's genocidal fury. The gloomy government and journalistic retrospectives being churned out largely neglect the economic progress and relative political stability that the 5 million to 6 million people of Kurdistan have fashioned out of Hussein's overthrow," he writes.

Hoagland recommends, echoing KRG requests, that the U.S. establish security relations with the KRG, referring to an American preference for dealing with only centralized federal governances.

The benefits of a strong U.S.-KRG relationship extend further than increasing the Kurdistan Region's security.

"The emergence of a stable, largely detached Iraqi Kurdistan wedged between Turkey and Iran establishes a geographic belt of non-Arab Islamic leaderships who increasingly share interests. U.S. ability to influence Iran's government seems to be nonexistent, and its influence is waning in Turkey," Hoagland writes. "It is a good time, Mr. President, to get to know the Kurds—and their ambitions. Israel and the West Bank are not the only spots in the Middle East worth a visit next year."

SOURCE Kurdistan Regional Government

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