Kurdish President: Iraq's unity voluntary not compulsory

Iraq’s unity is voluntary not compulsory, Kurdish President Massoud Barzani said yesterday, stressing that Kurds have no immediate plans to break away from the central government in Baghdad.

Barzani was speaking in Washington after talks with US President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on issues including the campaign to defeat the Islamic State (ISIS).

The White House said that Obama and Biden stressed, during their talks, that Washington supports a “united, federal and democratic Iraq”.

Barzani said that Kurds are coordinating with Baghdad in the war against ISIS where Kurdish Peshmerga forces have played an important role. However, he pointed to the Kurds’ aspirations to have an independent state.

Speaking at an event sponsored by the Atlantic Council and US Institute of Peace think tank, he said: “Certainly, the independent Kurdistan is coming. It is a continued process. It will not stop. It will not step back.”

“Iraq’s unity is voluntary and not compulsory, so therefore the important thing is for attempts to be made for everyone in Iraq to have that conviction that it would be a voluntary union and not a forced union,” he said, adding that any changes in Iraq’s make-up should be made peacefully.