Rep. Steve King: US should have supported independence referendum
“I believe the Kurdish people, or the Iraqi Kurds, deserve their freedom,” Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) told Kurdistan 24.
“I would have liked to have seen our Secretary of State not declare” that the vote on the referendum—“which was 92 percent in favor of Kurdish independence from Iraq—to be an illegitimate election, but support it because it was the voice of the Kurdish people.” “I think it actually would be an independent nation-state today,” he said, “had our Secretary of State made the announcement that I’ve suggested, rather than the one that he did.”
The Congressman criticized Iraq’s tough position toward the Kurds: “Baghdad wants to hold everything they can,” he said. “Baghdad, though, is now almost a totally owned subsidiary of the Iranian mullahs,” he stated. “And I want that severed.”
