As one media report put it, Iraq’s Kurds have got their groove back. In recapturing the Sinjar mountain from Daesh (Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant) and freeing up hundreds of Yazidis trapped there since summer, the Kurdish peshmerga, as part of the US-led coalition against the terrorist organisation, have helped define an important moment for Iraq. The assault on Daesh will hopefully continue to gather strength but it’s the role of the Kurds that’s leading to a new alchemy between the government of the new prime minister, Haider Al Abadi and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).
The recent agreement on oil exports from Kirkuk between the Iraqi government and the Kurds, after decades of wrangling and bad blood, is a sign of this new alchemy when the two sides agreed to the export of 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Kirkuk and 250,000 bpd from the northern Kurdish region through Turkey. This rapprochement with the Kurds is what Iraq needs to head into a future that is defined by rebuilding and stability and not by internal strife. The future of Iraq must be devoid of its past mistakes.
