Emmanuel
Macron offered to mediate between Erbil and Bagdad, Reuters published on
Thursday, October 5.
France is
the second biggest contributor of troops in the campaign against the Islamic
State and is considered a direct stakeholder. “France is ready, if Iraqi
authorities wish, to actively contribute to the mediation launched by the
United Nations,” Reuters reports Macron as saying.
Since the
independence referendum on Monday September 25, the Kurdish Autonomous Region
has proclaimed its will to push towards secession. The drive towards Kurdish
independence is complicating the common front against the Islamic State, as the
Kurdish Peshmerga militia has been one of the forces spearheading the campaign.
The Iraqi
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was in Paris on Thursday.
Bagdad has
found strong support from both Iran and Turkey against the push for Kurdish secession.
This has resulted in a credible economic blockade of the landlocked region.
But, the
government in Baghdad is seeking for a negotiated exit strategy from the
current constitutional crisis. As a good will gesture, Bagdad seized a strategy
of financial embargo of the region’s banks on Wednesday. The question is
whether Erbil – the capital of the autonomous region – is willing to negotiate.
Iraq’s
Prime Minister, al-Abadi, has made clear that Bagdad is unwilling but not
unable to resort to violence, raising the specter of armed confrontation.
Turkish troops have echoed this threat by conducting large-scale military
exercises with across the border region with the participation of the Iraqi
military. Besides territory, what is at stake is the oil-rich region of Kirkuk,
a region that does not traditionally belong to Iraqi Kurdistan but that
Peshmerga forces were able to control as they pushed back ISIS.
In a visit
to Erbil on September 27, al-Abadi made a distinction between punishing Kurdish
citizens and taking steps against the Kurdistan Regional Government. The Iraqi
Prime Minister urged Erbil to surrender control of border crossings and
airports to the federal government or risk confrontation.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/macron-offers-mediate-kurds-baghdad/