As Kurds head to the polls for Monday’s referendum, widely expected to end with an overwhelming majority supporting secession from Iraq, the Iraqi central government is acting quickly to try to cut off Kurdistan from the rest of the world.
The central government issued statements on Sunday requesting that the Kurds hand over all airports within their territory, as well as control over all international border crossings in Iraq’s north.
Perhaps even more importantly, at least in the near-term, Iraqi officials are asking all neighboring countries for exclusivity deals on oil exports, which if successful would mean that Iraqi Kurdistan could not export its vast oil wealth abroad.
All this points toward Iraq trying to undercut Kurdish independence by maintaining a total stranglehold on all commerce and travel going into and out of the region. Kurdish officials haven’t said if they will comply with the demands.
This nasty pimple could come to a head very quickly as Kurdistan’s supporters have to make a decision about the risks of continuing to provide for their clients. Unless the Kurds can make stuff themselves, all their ‘bang bang’, sustenance and moolah is coming in by air, over ‘injun territory’.
Could the American presence in eastern Syria supporting the Kurds there be the first phase in a corridor passing from Israel through occupied Syria effectively acting as a land supply line to the Kurdish entity? Would the Turks or Iraqi’s dare to attack it directly if it was protected by US & Israeli forces??