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August 6th, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Brett McGurk, the United States’ envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition, said the US’ government is firmly opposed to the referendum on the independence of Iraq’s Kurdistan Autonomous Region, scheduled for September 25. McGurk criticized the timing of the referendum and its potential negative impact on the joint fight against the Islamic State.
McGurk said the US doesn’t believe the referendum is a good idea, among others, because it is “ill-timed”. He added that there are several critical engagements with the Islamic State ahead, among others in Hawija. These engagements, he added, require “full cooperation between Peshmerga and Iraqi security forces, so as to avoid potentially catastrophic consequences”.
During a briefing this weekend McGurk said that “obviously, we are in detailed discussions with the Iraqi leaders over this, and that’s one reason why (U.S. Secretary of State) Tillerson made a couple of important calls over the last couple days. … Look, we’re focused right now on this referendum that Kurdish authorities have said they want to hold on September 25th. It’s something the U.S. Government is – firmly, firmly opposes,” he said.
McGurk also stated that the United States supports a unified Iraq. “We support the Government of Iraq. We support a unified federal – a unified federal Iraq that is strong and that is prosperous and that is at peace with itself and with its neighbors,” he said. “So obviously, we have deep relations in the Kurdistan Region – in Erbil, in Sulaymaniyah, with all the Kurdish parties – and I think that is something that goes back many, many decades and is something that will continue. But we’ll also continue working, of course, through the Government of Iraq, within the Iraqi constitutional system, to support a unified and federal Iraq,” McGurk official concluded.
However, McGurk’s statement about the U.S. supporting a unified Iraq ought to be taken with a grain of salt, especially when it hasn’t been specified who or what is meant with “the US”. Support for an independent Kurdistan in the Kurdistan Autonomous Region (KAR) of Iraq has been a general trend in U.S. policy in recent years. The overt political support decreases, however, each time this support could drive Baghdad closer to Iran or Russia.
F/AK – nsnbc 06.08.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/08/06/us-firmly-opposes-iraqi-kurdistan-independence-referendum-on-september-25-mcgurk/
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