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Iraq's unity receives first blow

Kurds to seek independence as Kerry pushes unity amid chaos

CNN Online
Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani gave his strongest-ever indication yesterday that his region would seek formal independence from the rest of Iraq despite US Secretary of State John Kerry's appeal to stand with Baghdad.
Kerry flew to the Kurdish region on an emergency trip through the Middle East amid fears that Iraq faces disintegration under the onslaught by Islamist militants - the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) - backed by disgruntled Sunni tribes.
His visit came as the UN said at least 1,075 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Iraq in June.
US officials believe that persuading the Kurds to stick with the government in Baghdad will help keep Iraq together. But Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish president, hardly provided a ringing endorsement forthe Iraqi government.
"We are facing a new reality and a new Iraq," said Barzani at the start of his meeting with Kerry. America is a close Kurdish ally, but opposes independence for the region.
Earlier, he blamed prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's "wrong policies" for the violence and called for him to quit, saying it was "very difficult" to imagine Iraq staying together.
"Iraq is obviously falling apart," he
told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview. "And it's obvious that the federal or central government has lost control over everything. Everything is collapsing -the army, the troops, the police."
"We did not cause the collapse of Iraq. It is others who did. And we cannot remain hostages for the unknown," he said through an interpreter.
"The time is here for the Kurdistan people to determine their future and the decision of the people is what we are going to uphold."
Iraqi Kurdish independence has long been a goal, and the region has had autonomy from Baghdad for more than two decades, but they have never before said they would actually pursue
that dream.
But the latest crisis, in which Sunni extremists have captured a large swath of Iraqi territory on the border of Iraqi Kurdistan, seems to have pushed the Kurds over the edge.
"Now we are living [in] a new Iraq, which is different completely from the Iraq that we always knew, the Iraq that we lived in ten days or two weeks ago."
Iraqi Kurdistan has long had a fractious relationship with Baghdad; the region has had autonomy from the rest of Iraq for more than two decades.
Kurdistan even has its own military forces, the Peshmerga, which are now busy fighting ISIS extremists; next to the Iraqi military, which has looked awkward defending the country.