US-Kurdish alliance important for changes in Middle East: Ex-Israel National Security Advisor

A strong relationship between the United States and the Kurdish people will be a good foundation for significant changes in the Middle East, a former National Security Advisor of Israel said in a recent interview with Kurdistan 24.

US-KURDISH RELATIONS

“I think that the [Kurdish-American] relations might be a very good basis for very important change in the Middle East,” Yaakov Amidror, who is also a retired major general, stated.

Amidror underlined that the US-Kurdish alliance “cannot work without the Kurds [and] it cannot work without the Americans.”

America has provided support to the Kurds in the past, and consider them one of their greatest allies. In recent years, the US has backed Kurds militarily in both the Kurdistan Region and northern Syria in the ongoing fight against the so-called Islamic State.

Amidror said this alliance “will be stronger in the future and depends, of course, on both sides; it might be an important factor in changes in the Middle East for the best of the Middle East and the World.”

KURDISTAN INDEPENDENCE

The former National Security Advisor also noted that Israel is one of the strongest supporters of an independent Kurdistan.

Indeed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was one of the only world leaders who voiced his support for the Kurdistan Region’s historic independence referendum in September 2017.

“There [is] no one in the Middle East more than the Israelis who understand why the Kurds should have their self-determination,” Amidror told Kurdistan 24. “And [the Kurds] have to find the way” toward independence.

“I think that the first stage is a united [Kurdish] movement in all the areas,” he added, referring to the four parts of the Greater Kurdistan divided across Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq.

CONTAINING IRAN

Amidror also addressed Iran’s malign activity across the Middle East, and the need to stop Tehran to ensure peace in the region.

In Syria, the Iranian regime is closely aligned with Damascus. It views the Syrian regime’s continued rule as vital to its regional ambitions, and it has supported President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s seven-year-long civil war.

“Stage one of doing it, and any prerequisite to have a better Middle East in the future is to contain Iran,” Amidror told Kurdistan 24.

Israel is determined to eliminate Iran’s military presence in Syria and has conducted several strikes against Iranian positions over the past year.

“Israel is very active in this area,” he concluded, “and we have to work with other forces in the Middle East to contain Iran.”