[lee martell]

I don’t understand why this is being allowed to happen.
Tillerson is very much down on the Kurds.

[PAR35]

I don’t understand why this is being allowed to happen. Tillerson is very much down on the Kurds.

Tillerson had done business with the Kurds when he was with Exxon. It didn't turn out well for the company.

Google the headlines:

2014 Special Report: How Exxon helped make Iraqi Kurdistan - Reuters

2016 Exxon pulls out of three exploration blocks in Kurdistan: Iraq Oil Report

Here's the WaPo spin: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-exxon-under-rex-tillerson-won-iraqi-oil-fields-and-nearly-lost-iraq/2017/01/09/5f6efa28-d40c-11e6-9cb0-54ab630851e8_story.html

Basically, it appears that they can play with the Iraqi government and have access to the developed fields in the south, or they can play ball with the Kurds and prospect in Kurdistan, but possibly not both. That probably oversimplifies things, but it may well be a factor.

[Rockingham]

The Kurds were told by the US and other friends not to try for independence but did so anyway. They are now suffering the consequences.

[snoringbear]

“I don’t understand why this is being allowed to happen.
Tillerson is very much down on the Kurds.”

Agree. There’s nothing sacrosanct about Iraq borders. Afterall, they were drawn by a alcoholic Brit solder...