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Kurdistan turn to Capitol Hill to open up
travel, get more aid
28.9.2007
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Qubad
Talabani says it's in U.S. interests to keep forces
in Kurdistan and it is ultimately in our interests
for you to do so.
September
28, 2007
Washington, DC, -- One of America’s most
reliable allies in the Iraq war, the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG), has turned to Congress
for help in opening up northern Iraq to more
investment and travel.
KRG representatives have been working with lawmakers
to soften the State Department travel advisory for
Iraq to acknowledge Kurdistan’s relative safety.
They argue that such a move would recognize the
area’s greater stability and lead to more American
involvement.
Qubad Talabani, the KRG’s representative to the
U.S., said his government turned to Congress after
receiving a “lukewarm, if not cold reception” from
State Department officials to a formal request to
change the travel advisory. Consequently, a “Dear
Colleague” letter advocating the KRG’s position has
circulated Capitol Hill and attracted 11 signatories
so far.
“We are working this great democratic system,” said
Talabani of the effort. The travel advisory “is
negatively affecting [U.S.] policy in Iraq.”
A number of countries, including Japan, Germany and
the United Kingdom, have already toned down their
own travel warnings for Kurdistan.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Hill, Talabani
described what Kurdistan has undertaken this year
with Congress and emphasized Kurdish ties to the
U.S.
“We strongly believe that America has a solid
partner in the heart of the Islamic Middle East,”
said Talabani, the son of Iraq’s president, Jalal
Talabani. “It’s the Kurds.” |
The U.S. Senate continued to show its strong support
for a peaceful and prosperous Iraqi Kurdistan
Qubad Talabani is representative of the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) to the United States |
The Kurds’ success has led to growing talk of
independence from Iraq, but Talabani emphasized that
his office is not an embassy and that the KRG
supports keeping the country intact.
“We remain committed to a federal democracy in Iraq,
and ‘federal’ is the key here,” said Talabani. “But
we do have a responsibility to protect the lives of
the 4 million-plus people who live in the Kurdistan
region.”
The Kurds got a boost Thursday when the Senate
passed a non-binding amendment to the defense
authorization bill that called for a federalist,
decentralized Iraq. Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), a
longtime advocate of a “soft partition” of the
country, was the author of the measure.
There is also a broader effort to build a Kurdish
Congressional Caucus in Congress, which Talabani is
helping to lead.
Along with KRG’s liaison office, much of the
government’s outreach to Capitol Hill is being
conducted through lobbying firms, such as the
American Business Development Group and Barbour
Griffith & Rogers.
Chief congressional allies so far include Reps.
Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.),
who co-authored the travel advisory letter. Berman
has championed Kurdistan since the 1980s and called
for sanctions against Saddam Hussein’s regime after
its chemical-weapons attacks on the Kurdish people
in 1988.
“My fear is that the current travel advisory makes
Kurdistan look like Basra and Baghdad. I thought it
made sense for the State Department to consider
this,” said Berman.
In the letter, Berman and Shays write that the
travel warning does not “represent the conditions on
the ground,” and note that no Westerner has been
harmed by hostile action in the region since the
Iraq war began in 2003.
Talabani says changing the travel advisory would
also help attract more American businesses to the
region. In addition, the office is working on
creating an American-Kurdish Business Council to
help facilitate more U.S. investment.
“We have a lot of foreign companies investing in
Kurdistan today. Very few of them are American,” he
said.
Yet one of the KRG’s recent business successes — an
oil exploration deal with Hunt Oil — has attracted
the unwarranted attention of Capitol Hill. Rep.
Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has called for an
investigation into the agreement because CEO Ray
Hunt, a major Republican campaign donor, is close
with Bush administration officials.
“No rules have been bent to get an American firm in.
It has been a very transparent process,” said
Talabani.
Talabani also is trying to secure more
reconstruction aid for Kurdistan. Six hundred
forty-seven million dollars in U.S. funds for
reconstruction have been appropriated to the Kurdish
region, according to Baghdad’s U.S. Embassy.
Twenty-one billion dollars have been slated for
Iraq’s reconstruction overall.
“On the face of it, it seems they are not getting
their fair share of the reconstruction monies,” said
Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.). Rothman will propose
language in the House’s war supplemental
appropriations bill that calls for more
reconstruction funds to go to Kurdistan.
The KRG has also tried to bring Congress to
Kurdistan by ferrying more and more congressional
delegations to the region.
“We didn’t have to wear our helmets or our armor.
That’s the only place [in Iraq] we didn’t, except
for the shower,” joked Sen. Ben Nelson. The Nebraska
Democrat, along with three other senators, recently
stopped by Erbil after traveling to Baghdad.
Part of the KRG’s message to Capitol Hill is to
consider the region as part of a redeployment
strategy as U.S. soldiers leave Iraq. Calls for a
quick withdrawal are a particular worry for
Talabani.
“We need to keep drumming this beat: that’s in your
interests to keep forces in Kurdistan and it is
ultimately in our interests for you to do so,” he
said.
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