Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Local sources report that a car bomb explosion has targeted the General Security headquarters near the Baniyas Court in the Tartous countryside, western Syria
Israeli artillery strikes target Khan Younis, the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian media: IOF arrest leader Jamal al-Tawil, who was liberated as part of the prisoner exchange, from his home in al-Bireh.
Palestinian media: 'Israel' launches two airstrikes on eastern Khan Younis, Gaza.
Al Mayadeen’s correspondent in Gaza: Israeli occupation forces carry out demolitions in eastern Gaza City.
Venezuelan Foreign Ministry: The National Armed Forces will remain on alert and mobilized in the face of this extremely dangerous provocation.
Venezuelan Foreign Ministry: This is not a defense exercise, but rather a military aggression aimed at turning the Caribbean into a space for violence and US hegemony.
Venezuelan Foreign Ministry: The government of Trinidad and Tobago has surrendered the country's sovereignty to act as a military colony serving US interests.
Rapid Support Forces attack El-Fasher, west Sudan.
Al Mayadeen correspondent: One martyr and one wounded in an Israeli drone attack on the town of Hafir, west of Baalbek, eastern Lebanon.

US interested in independent Iraqi Kurdistan, Iraq has failed: Bolton

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: News websites
  • 27 Mar 2023 15:25
  • 3 Shares
4 Min Read

This is a reminder of when the Bush administration started supporting the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) immediately after invading Iraq. 

  • x
  •  National security adviser John Bolton at the White House in Washington, DC in July 2019 (AP)
    Former National Security Advisor John Bolton at the White House in Washington, DC, in July 2019. (AP)

During an interview with the Kurdish Rudaw news agency on Saturday, former US National Security Advisor John Bolton expressed interest, on behalf of the US, in an independent Iraqi Kurdistan. 

“I think an independent Kurdistan is in the interest of the United States. It’s hard to define exactly what its boundaries would be. But I think the state of Iraq has failed. I think certainly Kurdish territories in Iraq could be the basis of a new independent country," he said.

This echoes when the Bush administration started supporting the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by Masoud Barzani, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) - immediately upon invading Iraq. 

The KDP and the PUK are the uncontested ruling parties of Iraqi Kurdistan, and have been so since its inception as an autonomous region in the 1990s. The governorates of Dohuk and Erbil fall under the rule of the KDP, while Sulaymaniyah is controlled by the PUK - as both parties are responsible to set the policy of each of their controlled areas.

The US supported the three parties because they created three ethnically different regions in Iraq which could weaken the Iraqi government: A Kurdish region in the north, a Shia region in Baghdad and the south, and a Sunni region in the West.

'Borders are drawn with blood'

The Kurdish parties inserted Article 140 into the new Iraqi constitution in 2005 to annex Kirkuk - home to massive oil reserves and so-called disputed territories including Sinjar. The effort failed two years later, but when ISIS invaded Mosul, the Kurds got a second chance at trying. 

Related News

US debt burden set to surpass Italy’s IMF warns

Trump rules out vice presidency bid in 2028

As soon as the Iraqi army withdrew, the Kurdish Peshmerga forces tried to take Kirkuk, which increased their oil reserves from 4 billion to 13 billion barrels and helped them obtain the intrinsic base needed for Kurdistan to become an independent state.

Read next: US subtly warns Iraq after ban on Iraqi Kurdistan oil, gas exports

However, French academic and Iraq expert Pierre-Jean Luizard sees the Kurdish annexation as non-accidental, saying Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani made a pact with ISIS to divide the territory.

Shortly afterward, Peshmerga forces withdrew from Sinjar and the Nineveh Plain, which gave space for ISIS to invade and thus massacre thousands of Yazidis in Sinjar and capture thousands of women and girls as sex slaves.

Masoud Barzani then declared that “Article 140 has been applied. The borders are drawn with blood!”

Read more: Exclusive: Terrorists' positions totally destroyed in Kurdistan region

The oil in Kirkuk immediately started being sold to Turkey to then be transferred to Israeli buyers to export to "Israel". By the time 2015 rolled around, Kurdish oil accounted for 77% of "Israel’s" oil imports.

Here's where the US actively comes in. A referendum for the independence of Kurdistan was announced in 2017 by Barzani, which Bolton showed strong support for and which Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu directly supported in turn.

Regarding the oil exports, just this week, exports of nearly 400,000 barrels per day to Turkey have been stopped due to a ruling by an international court of arbitration that it violated a bilateral treaty. As a result, that impeded the goal of the Kurdish factions in obtaining autonomous control of Iraqi Kurdistan's oil sector and raised doubts about whether oil companies in Kurdistan would be able to continue producing and selling oil unless an agreement with Baghdad is reached moving forward.

  • United States
  • Iraqi Kurdistan
  • Iraq
  • John Bolton
  • US occupation of Iraq
  • US
  • Kurdistan

Most Read

'Israel’s Digital Iron Dome: Weaponizing the web against Palestine

'Israel’s Digital Iron Dome: Weaponizing the web against Palestine

  • Technology
  • 24 Oct 2025
Abu Hamza, the spokesperson for the Al-Quds Brigades, during a speech televised on October 22, 2025 (Al-Quds Brigades Military Media)

Al-Quds Brigades' Abu Hamza mourns leaders, vows continued resistance

  • Politics
  • 22 Oct 2025
US missionary kidnapped in Niger capital, suspected taken toward Mali

US missionary kidnapped in Niger capital, suspected taken toward Mali

  • Africa
  • 23 Oct 2025
What Marr evidently didn't seem to understand was that Hedges isn't saying that Western journalists manipulate the truth, but that they systematically amplify Israeli narratives they know are false. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

Western journalists know they have a case to answer for their betrayal of Gaza, and it frightens them

  • Opinion
  • 24 Oct 2025

Coverage

All
War on Gaza

Read Next

All
Sheikh Naim Qassem speaks during an interview with Al-Manar TV, October 26, 2025 (Screenshot)
Politics

Hezbollah ready to face 'Israel' in case of war: Sheikh Naim Qassem

A Russian cargo train arrives at Astara Railway Wharf, March 2018 (IRNA)
Economy

Tehran, Moscow to finalize INSTC rail project next month

Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf addresses the media after submitting his candidacy for the Islamic Republic's upcoming presidential election in Tehran on June 3, 2024 (AP)
Politics

UNSCR 2231 termination marks major win for Iran’s diplomacy: Qalibaf

ap
Politics

'Israel' killed 40 Palestinian children in West Bank since January: UN

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS