Last December, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) pulled a fast one on the New York Times when a Washington PR firm succeeded in placing an op-ed in the Grey Lady which it published in the name of a top aide to Masoud Barzani (although he did not acknowledge himself as such). The Kurdish government is at it again with an op-ed by Aziz Ahmed, an aide to Masoud Barzani’s son who supposedly writes in his personal capacity. To believe that any Barzani aide can write in a personal capacity is akin to believing that top aides to Bashar al-Assad can also write in personal capacities.
Not only is Ahmed inaccurate by omission, but he is also undermined by flawed assumptions. Firstly, he suggests that Sunnis are not participating in the fight against the Islamic State. Ten to 15 percent of the Hashd al-Shaabi, the volunteers who fight the Islamic State for two or three months stints, are Sunni Arabs fighting alongside their Shi‘ite counterparts. American journalists and officials do not see that as much simply because they are far more likely to visit Kurdistan than see the frontline with the Iraqi security forces or Hashd al-Shaabi, which are often dismissed uniformly in the West as a sectarian, pro-Iranian militia. While Iran certainly seeks to co-opt the Hashd al-Shaabi, the groups are less homogenous than many in Washington assume.
Nor is it correct to suggest that Baghdad is haphazard in its provision of weaponry to the Kurdistan Regional Government. Under Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, there have been no delays in the provision of weaponry. Indeed, the problem has been more that Ahmed’s boss has warehoused the weaponry for the use of his dad’s political party.
The basic problem in Iraq is not that Baghdad does not reach out to the Sunnis — Baghdad very much does. Sunni politicians from Mosul and al-Anbar are very active. Nor does Baghdad humiliate Sunni refugees from areas under Islamic State occupation whereas the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) requires receipt of repeated short-term residency visas. Should refugees complain about exploitation or discrimination, the KRG can deport them back to the Islamic State. The problem rather is that some Sunnis and former regime elements actively support the Islamic State and refuse to accept the fact any Shi‘ite democratic empowerment whatsoever. It is bigotry plain and simple, and the Kurds given their history should condemn and not encourage it. Likewise, to excuse former officials convicted of running death squads or conducting terrorism is a bit disingenuous given that in some case the charges were made by (Sunni) family members of the (Sunni) victims and judgment was passed by (Sunni) judges.
Rather than make special concessions to Iraqi Sunnis, it’s time to treat all Iraqis as equal under the law (as the governorates of Najaf and Karbala do, by the way, in sharp contrast to the governorates of Erbil and Duhok). As for the National Guard, that’s a very good idea which Iraq continues to implement, albeit too slowly. Perhaps, however, Aziz Ahmed can take his own advice and integrate Sunni Arabs into the Kurdish peshmerga? After all, be it because of corruption or other factors, too many Kurds have joined the Islamic State. The Kurdistan Regional Government might also stop blocking proposals for administrative federalism, the devolution of real political and budgetary power to the provinces.
Is Aziz Ahmed’s concern really the fight against the Islamic State? If so, the real irony here is that Masoud Barzani, his son and political appointee Masrour, and Aziz Ahmed have sought to prevent the provision of weaponry, alongside food and medicine, to the Syrian Kurdish militia which has the best track record of any group against the Islamic State. It’s cynical politics 101, but it’s becoming all too common for Middle Eastern actors — be they Hamas’ spokesmen, the Iranian foreign minister, and now the Kurds to play it out in the United States.
