Home
British MP: Erbil has Great Opportunity to Become Financial Hub in the Region
27.01.2015 14:34
The British Kurdish MP who accompanied Mayor of London Boris Johnson on his visit to the Kurdistan Region has spoken of the opportunities for trade between the region and the UK, and how the UK can help in the war against Islamic State.
Nadhim Zahawi was born in Baghdad to Kurdish parents. The family moved to London when he was nine years old, and before taking office as MP for Stratford-on-Avon, he was CEO of YouGov, the international polling company that has an office in Erbil. He currently sits on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the British Parliament.
Zahawi outlined that his visit with the London Mayor had two focusses – developing trade and cooperation between Kurdistan and the UK, and finding out about the UK’s training operations with the Peshmerga and how the fight against Islamic State is developing.
“The PM (Nechervan Barzani) invited the Mayor of London to Hawler, and Boris wanted to come and see for himself some of the challenges that you are facing in Kurdistan, and particularly Erbil and the other cities. It was a very successful trip – if he was a friend of Kurdistan before, he’s a champion of Kurdistan now.”
Johnson is standing as an MP for the constituency of Uxbridge in the upcoming British general election, and Zahawi believes that his influence will be key in strengthening economic ties. “Boris is coming back to the Houses of Parliament if he wins his Uxbridge seat in the coming election, and you will have another champion in the UK Parliament after May 7th.
“The Kurdish people share the values of the British people. This is an embryonic democracy, one that can be a beacon for the whole region – Boris has the impression that this is a democratic nation, a nation that is ambitious, a nation that is actually outward looking, open-minded, tolerant, secular.”
Whilst the motives for Johnson’s visit have been questioned, with some commentators suggesting a trip to a war zone could be seen as an attempt to portray himself as a statesman, Zahawi is clear that money was the main draw, “We see the potential of Kurdistan in business. One of the things we’d like to see obviously is direct flights, hopefully from BA, it would make a huge difference, it would bring the two economies closer.
“I expect to hear some very positive news in the next few days about further British Kurdish economic cooperation on public infrastructure projects in Hawler.”
The MP turned away from the opportunities in the region to address the challenges.
“There are two internal challenges at the moment; The security challenges. We saw first hand the training that the British forces are conducting with the Peshmerga. President Barzani has reiterated that they are not looking for British boots on the ground to do the fighting for them. What they want is more equipment. I didn’t get the impression that actually they want us to do their fighting for them, this is very much their fight”, said Zahawi.
“Even the Peshmerga themselves were all saying ‘This is our land, this is our country we’re going to fight for it and we’re going to secure it.’
“We’ve heard the message loud and clear – they need more equipment, so the MILAN anti-tank missile is clearly effective, but they’re saying they just don’t have enough – the front at Gwer and Makhmour is 135km, they only have two MILAN systems there, they could do with more.
“As for the liberation of Mosul, there is a bigger challenge there. A Kurdish Peshmerga will say ‘Look, this isn’t my city, why am I here?’ So there needs to be a security force made up of the people of Mosul if they’re going to win peace and drive a wedge between the silent majority and these terrorists. It’s a challenge in the months to come that Iraq will be able to face up to.”
The second challenge, he says, is the battered economy.
“Kurdistan has gone through what I would call a treble whammy. It started off with Malaki when he cut off the budget in Jan 2014. The December agreement shows real hope.
“The double whammy was IS and then the treble one as I call it, is the falling oil prices. Your ministers are looking at real reform of the economy and the future for Kurdistan in my view and the committee’s [Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the UK Parliament] view, is bright.
“The Kurds are outward looking. Boris put it beautifully, there are some governments who are friendly and positive towards Britain and the West, but the people aren’t.
“And there are some countries where the people are friendly and positive about the West, but the governments aren’t.
“With Kurdistan, the government and the people are friendly towards the West and people coming in. You only have to take a walk in any city, town or village in Kurdistan to realise that people actually like Westerners, they like people and they want them investing and working here. That in itself is incredibly positive.”
With some estimates of more than 500 British jihadis fighting in Syria and Iraq, mostly for Islamic State, but also for al-Nusra and other organisations, Zahawi is clear about the consequences for those that return to the UK.
“The IS problem washes up on all our shores. It washes up in Paris, in London, all over the world.
“The one thing that we have to be clear about – if you’ve gone to Syria and you’ve committed crimes, you have to face justice. What the Home Secretary has said is that she will look at this case by case.
“If you’ve joined IS, you’ve joined a terrorist organisation so you’ve already committed a crime. If you’ve fought with IS I don’t think you are any longer deserving of British citizenship, if you’re dual national or naturalised then I think it’s right that we withdraw your passport.
“It’s important that we send a very clear message to any young man or woman who is thinking of joining IS that this is bad and if you commit a crime you’re going to have to suffer the consequences.”
He also addressed the question of British nationals coming to fight alongside the YPG in Rojava, “If you’re not a trained soldier from the Peshmerga or Iraqi army, then you really should not be fighting this fight against IS, that’s the message we want to send out.”
Finally, Zahawi responded to the angry reaction from Erbil to the lack of representation at the recent anti-IS conference in London.
“We get the message loud and clear – I will certainly deliver that message back to London, as will Boris, that the President of Kurdistan quite clearly was upset, as our the Kurdish people.
“They are the people who are on the frontline, taking the fight to IS on behalf of the whole world and we came here to thank them for the sacrifices that they’re making.
“They are the primary actor in this theatre of war, yet they had no seat at the table.”
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
27.01.2015 14:34
The British Kurdish MP who accompanied Mayor of London Boris Johnson on his visit to the Kurdistan Region has spoken of the opportunities for trade between the region and the UK, and how the UK can help in the war against Islamic State.
Nadhim Zahawi was born in Baghdad to Kurdish parents. The family moved to London when he was nine years old, and before taking office as MP for Stratford-on-Avon, he was CEO of YouGov, the international polling company that has an office in Erbil. He currently sits on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the British Parliament.
Zahawi outlined that his visit with the London Mayor had two focusses – developing trade and cooperation between Kurdistan and the UK, and finding out about the UK’s training operations with the Peshmerga and how the fight against Islamic State is developing.
“The PM (Nechervan Barzani) invited the Mayor of London to Hawler, and Boris wanted to come and see for himself some of the challenges that you are facing in Kurdistan, and particularly Erbil and the other cities. It was a very successful trip – if he was a friend of Kurdistan before, he’s a champion of Kurdistan now.”
Johnson is standing as an MP for the constituency of Uxbridge in the upcoming British general election, and Zahawi believes that his influence will be key in strengthening economic ties. “Boris is coming back to the Houses of Parliament if he wins his Uxbridge seat in the coming election, and you will have another champion in the UK Parliament after May 7th.
“The Kurdish people share the values of the British people. This is an embryonic democracy, one that can be a beacon for the whole region – Boris has the impression that this is a democratic nation, a nation that is ambitious, a nation that is actually outward looking, open-minded, tolerant, secular.”
Whilst the motives for Johnson’s visit have been questioned, with some commentators suggesting a trip to a war zone could be seen as an attempt to portray himself as a statesman, Zahawi is clear that money was the main draw, “We see the potential of Kurdistan in business. One of the things we’d like to see obviously is direct flights, hopefully from BA, it would make a huge difference, it would bring the two economies closer.
“I expect to hear some very positive news in the next few days about further British Kurdish economic cooperation on public infrastructure projects in Hawler.”
The MP turned away from the opportunities in the region to address the challenges.
“There are two internal challenges at the moment; The security challenges. We saw first hand the training that the British forces are conducting with the Peshmerga. President Barzani has reiterated that they are not looking for British boots on the ground to do the fighting for them. What they want is more equipment. I didn’t get the impression that actually they want us to do their fighting for them, this is very much their fight”, said Zahawi.
“Even the Peshmerga themselves were all saying ‘This is our land, this is our country we’re going to fight for it and we’re going to secure it.’
“We’ve heard the message loud and clear – they need more equipment, so the MILAN anti-tank missile is clearly effective, but they’re saying they just don’t have enough – the front at Gwer and Makhmour is 135km, they only have two MILAN systems there, they could do with more.
“As for the liberation of Mosul, there is a bigger challenge there. A Kurdish Peshmerga will say ‘Look, this isn’t my city, why am I here?’ So there needs to be a security force made up of the people of Mosul if they’re going to win peace and drive a wedge between the silent majority and these terrorists. It’s a challenge in the months to come that Iraq will be able to face up to.”
The second challenge, he says, is the battered economy.
“Kurdistan has gone through what I would call a treble whammy. It started off with Malaki when he cut off the budget in Jan 2014. The December agreement shows real hope.
“The double whammy was IS and then the treble one as I call it, is the falling oil prices. Your ministers are looking at real reform of the economy and the future for Kurdistan in my view and the committee’s [Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the UK Parliament] view, is bright.
“The Kurds are outward looking. Boris put it beautifully, there are some governments who are friendly and positive towards Britain and the West, but the people aren’t.
“And there are some countries where the people are friendly and positive about the West, but the governments aren’t.
“With Kurdistan, the government and the people are friendly towards the West and people coming in. You only have to take a walk in any city, town or village in Kurdistan to realise that people actually like Westerners, they like people and they want them investing and working here. That in itself is incredibly positive.”
With some estimates of more than 500 British jihadis fighting in Syria and Iraq, mostly for Islamic State, but also for al-Nusra and other organisations, Zahawi is clear about the consequences for those that return to the UK.
“The IS problem washes up on all our shores. It washes up in Paris, in London, all over the world.
“The one thing that we have to be clear about – if you’ve gone to Syria and you’ve committed crimes, you have to face justice. What the Home Secretary has said is that she will look at this case by case.
“If you’ve joined IS, you’ve joined a terrorist organisation so you’ve already committed a crime. If you’ve fought with IS I don’t think you are any longer deserving of British citizenship, if you’re dual national or naturalised then I think it’s right that we withdraw your passport.
“It’s important that we send a very clear message to any young man or woman who is thinking of joining IS that this is bad and if you commit a crime you’re going to have to suffer the consequences.”
He also addressed the question of British nationals coming to fight alongside the YPG in Rojava, “If you’re not a trained soldier from the Peshmerga or Iraqi army, then you really should not be fighting this fight against IS, that’s the message we want to send out.”
Finally, Zahawi responded to the angry reaction from Erbil to the lack of representation at the recent anti-IS conference in London.
“We get the message loud and clear – I will certainly deliver that message back to London, as will Boris, that the President of Kurdistan quite clearly was upset, as our the Kurdish people.
“They are the people who are on the frontline, taking the fight to IS on behalf of the whole world and we came here to thank them for the sacrifices that they’re making.
“They are the primary actor in this theatre of war, yet they had no seat at the table.”
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
