{"id":93552,"date":"2014-06-24T13:00:10","date_gmt":"2014-06-24T09:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/?p=93552"},"modified":"2014-06-24T13:00:10","modified_gmt":"2014-06-24T09:00:10","slug":"exclusive-iraqi-kurdistan-leader-massoud-barzani-says-the-time-is-here-for-self-determination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/en\/?p=93552","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Iraqi Kurdistan leader Massoud Barzani says &#8216;the time is here&#8217; for self-determination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/massoud-barzani-kurdistan.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-93548\" alt=\"massoud-barzani-kurdistan\" src=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/massoud-barzani-kurdistan.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/massoud-barzani-kurdistan.jpg 640w, https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/massoud-barzani-kurdistan-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/massoud-barzani-kurdistan-500x281.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a>Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani gave his strongest-ever indication on Monday that his region would seek formal independence from the rest of Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>Iraqi Kurdish independence has long been a goal, and the region has had autonomy from Baghdad for more than two decades, but they have never before said they would actually pursue that dream.<\/p>\n<p>But the latest crisis, in which Sunni extremists have captured a large swath of Iraqi territory on the border of Iraqi Kurdistan, seems to have pushed the Kurds over the edge.<\/p>\n<p>Barzani said that he would make that case to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry when they meet in Erbil Tuesday; America is a close Kurdish ally, but opposes independence for the region.<\/p>\n<p>A reconciliation, Barzani said, could be possible \u201cif there was understanding between Shias and Sunnis, and if there is a guarantee of a true partnership in the authority.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani gave his strongest-ever indication on Monday that his region would&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":93548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[221,224,140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editors-choice","category-news","category-region","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/93548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}