Kirkuk governor: US must work with Iran to stabilize Iraq

[Jefferson23]

The United States must work with Iran if there’s to be any hope of defeating the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS, or ISIS) and bringing peace to Iraq, the Kurdish governor of oil-rich Kirkuk province told Al-Monitor.

Najmaldin Karim laid out his vision for getting sectarian violence under control during a wide-ranging interview at the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) offices in Washington. He urged military cooperation between the United States and Iran-backed Shiite militias known as Popular Mobilization Units as a first step toward getting Tehran to play a more productive role in Iraq.

“I think they can cooperate, especially when it comes to the militias, cooperating as far as how to fight ISIS,” Karim said. “Now any place where there are Shia militias, US refuses to use airstrikes. Maybe they should resolve that issue because after all, the US invited Iran on the Syria issue to join the other countries. Why not do it in Iraq also?”

Karim said the province, smaller than Lebanon with a population of 1.4 million before the rise of IS, is strained to the breaking point by the arrival of 550,000 mostly Sunni Arabs fleeing the conflict. He accused Baghdad and the international community of failing to adequately help.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/11/iraq-governor-kirkuk-refugees-isis-oil.html