Kurdistan Region PM Barzani: war against Islamic State will take years

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani warned that the war against Islamic State is going to last years if current policy continues.

The current stance of the US can hope to achieve nothing aside from containing the organisation, and he called for special forces to fight alongside the Peshmerga.

“With air strikes you cannot destroy this organisation for sure. To destroy this organisation we need some special forces, not boots on the ground, but some joint military operations fighting alongside the Peshmerga.”

In an apparent reference to US President Obama’s commitment to “degrade and destroy” IS, Barzani said, “The question is: is the policy one of containment, or to dislodge and destroy them?”

He went on to reiterate the position of the Kurdistan Regional Government towards disputed areas, claiming that the Peshmerga are fighting only for areas that rightfully belong to the region.

The Kurds, he said, have no interest in being the lead force in any future operation to retake Mosul, “We don’t want to spearhead any attack to retake Mosul. We want to avoid further conflict.”

Therefore the only force that can take on IS in Mosul is the Iraqi army, which is currently a long way from readiness for such an operation.

Barzani ruled out a March launch altogether, questioned the likelihood of a June offensive, believing that September or October is the time the necessary training of new recruits will be completed, and divisions from Baghdad able to redeploy north.

He once more called for heavier weaponry to solidify the gains made by the Peshmerga in the north of the country, “This is not a war you can win with AK-47s and RPGs.”

Towards the end of the interview, the Prime Minister welcomes Haider al-Abadi as a good replacement for former Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki whose policies, he believes, were responsible for the environment in which IS was able to grow.

In closing, Barzani points to a difficult future for the country of Iraq.

“There is no loyalty to a country called Iraq. It really is important to find a formula for how to live together within the boundaries of what is called Iraq. Unless that formula is found, there will be more bloodshed and the country will remain a destabilising factor in the region.”

Source: BasNews