Iraq’s First Lady Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed has issued a direct plea to avoid drawing Iraq and the Kurdish region into the expanding Iran conflict, warning in an exclusive interview with Responsible Statecraft that her country is neither prepared nor willing to absorb another war.
“The Iraqi people should not be placed in danger of another round of destruction,” she said. “Even now, we are still uncovering mass graves of people who were killed during Saddam Hussein’s regime more than 35 years ago.”
Ibrahim Ahmed, who is Iraqi-Kurdish, spoke as reports swirled about CIA outreach to Kurdish militant groups to mount an uprising against the Iranian regime. Iran has already struck what it calls “anti-Iran separatist forces” in western Iran’s mountains, and both Erbil and her hometown of Sulaymaniyah have been hit by missiles.
