Contrary to current belief, Zebari thinks that lifting the sanctions on Iraq will not slow down the economic, political, and diplomatic activities in the Kurdistan Region.
Peshraw Hamajan, political science lecturer at Sulaimani University, says that Kurdish fears over the lifting of sanctions are valid, since Erbil’s diplomatic ties are restricted by the Iraqi constitution. He shares the widespread Kurdish distrust of the Shiite Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
“No doubt Maliki and his government will regain full sovereignty and independence,” he says. “All the frozen Iraqi assets will be freed, with which the Iraqi government can buy heavy weapons and sign military treaties.”
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari (pictured), who is an ethnic Kurd, said that from now on Iraq is a free country, and that it will be debt-free by 2015.
In a speech after the lifting of sanctions, Maliki said that, “Iraq has become a free country and the burden of the restrictions that were implicated by the previous dictator regime are lifted.”
(Source: Rudaw)
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