After acting like an independent state in the northern part of Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, Iraq's self-ruled Kurdish region has started to practise its regional influence by hosting for the first time a widen conference for Syrian Kurdish political parties and activists.
The region's president, Masoud Barzani told his Syrian guests Saturday in Erbil: "We don't know what
will happen in Syria but indications say that there will be a change and you have to leave the narrow partisan interests and unify to prepare yourselves for the new period in Syria."
By today's bold move, Iraq's Kurds have officially entered in the Syrian conflict and specifically in the U.S.-backed camp that calls to remove Bashar Al-Assad in defiance to the central government policy in Baghdad which is most likely dictated by Iran to keep Al-Assad in power.
The move not only shows how Iraq is fragmented, but it acts also as a birth certificate for a new regional power. This new West-back regional power has now influence not only in Iraq but also in Syria, Iran and Turkey. It is only a matter of time to see it expanding more and more to win the prize from the West: the Kurdish state.
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