“It was good that Obama came forward and protected the Kurds, but his desire to put Iraq together comes too late. Iraq is artificial – it’s neither a legitimate nor a linguistically-similar state. Unless Iraq has a very weak central government, it has no prospect of holding together,” Xulam, director of the American Kurdish Information Network, said.
“Obama must come to terms with the reality of the Middle East, the frontiers are changing and the trend is towards borders based on linguistic similarities. Iraqi Kurds have always sided with Americans, despite their bitter history with the US, and America needs to support their wishes."
The US has launched airstrikes against the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS and ISIL. The Sunni Muslim group controls swathes of Iraq and Syria and recent attacks on Kurdish-run northern Iraq have forced tens of thousands of Christians to flee their homes.
Turmoil in Iraq and greater autonomy for its northern Kurdish provinces have raised the specter of a free Kurdish state breaking away from the south. But the US warns against Iraq fragmenting and says Kurds, Sunnis, Shias and other groups should work together in a unified nation.
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