Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and their Iraqi proxies have launched several attacks on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in recent years. US bases and, more recently, Kurdistan’s energy infrastructure have been the main targets of drone and rocket attacks. Following Kurdistan’s Independence Referendum in 2017, Iran launched a hidden war on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Attacks on Kurdistan intensified after Iraq’s parliamentary elections in 2021 and conversations about potential natural gas exports to Turkey and Europe.
Despite being in a constitutional vacuum, unable to form a new government, and facing countless governance issues, the Iraqi government moved aggressively to implement the “federal court” ruling against Kurdistan, ruling its oil & gas law unconstitutional.
What can Kurdistan do to protect its right to sell oil & gas? Will Iranian-backed parties stop attacking Kurdistan in an attempt to include Kurds in the next government in the absence of Moqtada al-Sadr? How are the Kurdish parties guaranteeing the constitutional rights of Kurdistan? Can the US play a role in mediating between Baghdad and Erbil? What can be done to minimize the role of Iran and its proxies?
Mattew Zais – Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, former Principal Deputy Assistant secretary at the US Department of Energy
Wladimir Vanwilgenburg – Author of The Kurds of Northern Syria, Journalist, M.A. Conflict and Kurdish Studies
Gary Kent – Secretary in the UK Parliament of the all-party parliamentary group on the Kurdistan Region in Iraq
Lara Arif – Moderator, Research Assistant at the Washington Kurdish Institute (WKI)
Dr. Matthew Zais is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative. He is also the vice president of government affairs for Hillwood and HKN Energy Ltd. He previously served for two years in the White House as the director for Iraq and Kurdish Affairs on the National Security Council. Most recently he served as the principal deputy assistant secretary of international affairs at the US Department of Energy, where he advocated for regional energy collaboration, including through the Abraham Accords, through the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum, and across the Middle East. Zais is a retired US army officer and has over two decades of experience, including as an infantry officer and from strategic roles in combating weapons of mass destruction, cyber, and Middle East policy. He is the co-author of the two-volume official history of the US Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He taught international relations and US foreign policy as an assistant professor at the US Military Academy at West Point and served as adjunct professor in the Security Studies Program at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Zais holds a BS in economics from the US Military Academy at West Point and an MPA and PhD in security studies from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.
Wladimir van Wilgenburg is an analyst of the Middle East, with a particular focus on Kurdish issues. Wladimir has closely covered key events on the ground, including the battles with the Islamic State inRaqqa, Makhmour, Bashiqa, Sinjar, and Baghouz Fawqani. He is the co-author of the recently published book The Kurds of Northern Syria:Governance, Diversity and Conflicts. His book provides a nuanced assessment of the Kurdish autonomous experience and prospects for self-rule in northeast Syria. Wladimir had unprecedented access to northeast Syria and conducted momentous field work to encapsulate the evolution of self-rule in Rojava.
Gary Kent is the secretary in the UK Parliament of the all-party parliamentary group on the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, personal capacity.
Lara Arif is currently a research assistant with the Washington Kurdish Institute (WKI). She is a rising senior at the University of Virginia where she studies Leadership and Public Policy along with Middle East and South Asian Studies.