Battle for Kurdistan: Trump Betrays a U.S. Ally, Allowing Iran to Gain the Upper Hand

The U.S. president could be striving to stifle the Shi’ite Crescent that's forming in the region, but all he wants to do is erase Obama’s landmark foreign policy

Anshel Pfeffer Oct 18, 2017 6:51 PM

Remember how only four days ago everyone was so worried that Donald Trump would destroy the nuclear deal with Iran? Well, he went ahead and “decertified” the deal, ostensibly opening up the way for Congress to impose new sanctions on Iran, which potentially could derail the agreement. But Congress doesn’t seem eager or capable of mustering a majority behind new sanctions, and meanwhile the other nations that signed the Iran deal, and of course Iran itself, are doing everything possible to keep it alive. Successfully, it appears.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, Iran has been on the move. U.S.-trained and financed Iraqi army units, along with Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias, at least one of which Washington considers a terror group, are beating into submission the Iraqi Kurds – without a doubt the most pro-Western element in Iraq.

The capitulation of the Kurdish fighters Sunday in Kirkuk and Monday night in Sinjar was precipitated Sunday morning by a visit to the Kurdish region by Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Quds force. Whatever threats or promises Soleimani made to the leaders of one of the main Kurdish parties evidently worked, as its members melted away from their positions around Kirkuk, exacerbating the already tense divides among the Kurds.

Iran’s interests are clear. An increasingly independent Kurdish entity on its borders will both encourage the millions of Kurds in Iran to seek autonomy and even independence. Just as worrying for Tehran, an independent Iraqi Kurdistan would be a bridgehead with which the mainly Kurdish forces fighting the Islamic State in eastern Syria could link up – cutting off the route along which Iran plans to construct its Shi’ite Crescent land corridor, connecting its proxies all the way from Tehran to the Mediterranean.

Betraying another ally

The United States of course is deeply invested in the Iraqi army. Billions of dollars in aid and advanced weaponry have gone to rebuilding the army over the last decade, with the help of thousands of U.S. military advisers. Washington has also worked closely with the Kurds, both in Iraq and Syria, in the campaign against the Islamic State.


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