Iraq Briefing

Rarely have I seen a politician so eager to answer all kinds of critical questions like his Excellency Tariq al-Hashimi when giving a lecture at SOAS yesterday in his capacity as Vice President of Iraq.

Just coming from Ankara where he had met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, I had to ask him to elaborate on the crucial Kirkuk issue and to give an assessment of any possible intervention by neighboring countries that refuse to see the status of Kirkuk as an inner-Iraqi issue only. Along with Baghdad and Basra, the status of Kirkuk is a highly sensitive matter involving multiple stakeholders. You might imagine what his answer was, no..?!