WASHINGTON — A former U.S. ambassador said Iraq has
disintegrated.
Peter Galbraith, a former U.S. ambassador to Croatia, said Iraq was no
longer a unified country. Galbraith said the Kurds have already created an
independent state in northern Iraq.
"I don't advocate the breaking up of Iraq," Galbraith told the
Washington-based Middle East Institute. "It has already disintegrated."
Galbraith, an adviser to the Kurdistan government, said the Kurds have
already achieved an independent state in all but name. He said that formal
independence as well as a seat at the United Nations would eventually take
place despite Turkish opposition, Middle East Newsline reported.
"I haven't met a single Kurd who would say 'I prefer to live in Iraq'
rather than in an independent Kurdistan," Galbraith said on Aug. 21.
"There's no chance to persuade the Kurds to give up their independence."
Galbraith urged the Bush administration to support an independent
Kurdistan. He called on the United States to redeploy its troops from Iraq's
Shi'ite and Sunni regions to the Kurdish-held north.
Despite fierce opposition, Turkey would eventually accept a Kurdish
state, Galbraith said. He said Ankara would not try to stop Kurdish
ambitions through military means, adding
that Turkey could influence an independent Kurdistan through diplomacy and
trade.
"The best strategy is good relations with Kurdistan, and that's actually
what is happening on the ground," Galbraith said. "Turkey is by far the
largest investor in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Turkish government has promoted
investments in Kurdistan."
