Israel tells U.S. Kurdish independence is 'foregone conclusion'

BY DAN WILLIAMS JERUSALEM Thu Jun 26, 2014 12:00pm EDT

Displaced families from the city of Tikrit make their way to Kirkuk June 16, 2014.

CREDIT: REUTERS/ AKO RASHEED

(Reuters) - Israel told the United States on Thursday Kurdish independence in northern Iraq was a "foregone conclusion" and Israeli experts predicted the Jewish state would be quick to recognise a Kurdish state, should it emerge.

READ MORE HERE...

Kurds strengthen their positions as ISIS advances on Baghdad

theguardian.com  Thursday 26 June 2014
Martin Chulov in Baghdad, and Fazel Hawramy in Irbil

As Iraq's government teeters before Isis insurgents, the Kurds now control the oil hub of Kirkuk – and have national ambitions

Tensions are high in Kirkuk after control of the historic Iraqi city was taken over by the Kurds after the Iraqi army abandoned its positions. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Iraqis in Baghdad and the country's south are already calling the events of the past two weeks "the catastrophe". Not so inhabitants of the would-be Iraqi Kurdish capital of Irbil, where joy is unrestrained and a long-held sense of destiny is ever closer to being realised.

As the central government teeters under the insurgent onslaught, the fate of Irbil appears more assured than ever. Kurdish politicians, in the past not shy to criticise Arab Iraqi leaders, but coy about their national ambitions, are now openly touting "a new reality".

To Kurdish officials and locals alike, a tectonic shift in the balance of power between Iraq's two power bases, and peoples, has taken place. And Kirkuk, the bitterly contested oil hub, is at the epicentre.

READ MORE HERE...

Safeen Dizayee, Kurdish regional government (KRG) spokesman, was at pains on Wednesday to highlight the region's resources. "In the governorates under KRG administration, vast quantities of natural resources have been discovered over the last few years – estimates point to more than 45bn barrels of oil and significant quantities of natural gas.

The Kurdistan region has already landed on the global energy map. Regarding the so-called disputed territories, Peshmerga forces have entered these areas after the Iraqi army abandoned their positions. The KRG had and still has an obligation to protect civilians in these areas and to ensure that army bases, cities, and land areas do not fall into the hands of terrorists.

Aref Maroof, 52, a Kirkuk school inspector, said: "I think 85-90% of Kurds want independence. Kurdistan has two options; one is to declare independence without 'separated territories' [disputed territories] in which case it will fail, or to declare independence by including the 'separated territories' in which case the Kurds will face a war with [Nouri al-]Maliki.

"It is in the interest of Kurds (to do so) if the central government and its army is weak. (But) If the KRG assists Iraq ... to rebuild their army, it is like committing suicide."

In Baghdad, a sense of gloom pervades many in government who see little chance of shifting the Kurds from Kirkuk, or even defending their interests while an insurgency and political crisis rages.

"They are getting what they want," said one minister. "While Baghdad burns, and while we all sit back and watch the fire."

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Jeremiah predicted the cities of Babylon would burn, the reconstructionists would abandon the land, and then war would break out between the Chaldeans -- the Arab Iraqis -- and the Medes -- the modern-day Kurds. "While Baghdad burns." That may happen most literally. Once it does, the One who has tried to "heal" Babylon will announce he is abandoning her, leaving her to her judgment. Then comes the war, defeat and plunder at the hands of the "kings of the Medes" -- the Kurds. Then a catastrophic flood, drought, and eventual "perpetual desolation."

It is a judgment from God. Flee from the midst of Babylon, so as to escape the coming calamity.

Sunni militants advance toward large Iraqi dam

www.nytimes.com | Middle East
By ALISSA J. RUBIN and ROD NORDLANDJUNE 25, 2014

The Haditha Dam in 2006, when it was protected by American Marines. CreditJim Wilson/The New York Times

BAGHDAD — Iraqi security officials said Wednesday that fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria were advancing on the Haditha Dam, the second-largest in Iraq, raising the possibility of catastrophic damage and flooding.

This would not be the first time that dams have figured in the conflict. In April, when ISIS fighters seized the Falluja Dam, they opened it, flooding crops all the way south to the city of Najaf. The water at one point washed east as well, almost reaching Abu Ghraib, close to Baghdad.

READ MORE HERE...

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The threat of "catastrophic damage and flooding" figures greatly in Jeremiah's prophecy of doom on the land of Babylon, representing the eighth judgment, the most destructive of all nine: "The sea (or broad river) has come up over Babylon; she has been engulfed with its tumultuous waves," Jer 51:42.

Following the catastrophic flood, "(God) shall dry up her sea (or broad river) and make her fountain dry, and Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and hissing, without inhabitants," Jer 51:36-37.

The drought seems to be a consequence of the flood, and the flood and drought result in Babylon's "perpetual desolation," Jer 51:62.

"Thou, O LORD, hast promised concerning this place to cut it off, so that there will be nothing dwelling in it, whether man or beast, but it will be a perpetual desolation."

Dismemberment of Iraq gives Kurds hope of independence

Excerpts from article by Margaret Evans, CBC News Jun 25, 2014
at CBCnews | World www.cbc.ca/news/world/

The Kurdish Peshmerga forces have been able to keep ISIS at bay while Iraqi forces melted away in the face of the militant group's advance (Margaret Evans/CBC)

Baghdad's increasing ire over Kurdish plans to export its oil and gas abroad directly led the central government to suspend the Kurdish share of Iraq's national budget in 2013.

It would be an understatement to call it bad timing for Iraq's beleaguered Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to be on the outs with the Kurds given they control the only truly cohesive fighting force in Iraq, the renowned Peshmerga.

At first glance, there would seem to be little incentive for the Kurds to prop up a central government under al-Maliki's control.

The chaos in Iraq and the potential for its dismemberment has opened up a crack through which the Kurds can clearly see their long cherished dream glistening in the distance -- that of an independent Kurdistan.

Said Gareth Stansfield, a professor of Middle East politics at England's University of Exeter, "The Kurdish leaders... (are) being very quiet and they're waiting for everything to fall around them."

Kirkuk is key to the notion of Kurdish independence. The city would give the Kurds the economic independence that they need to pursue their own course.

Last year, Kurdish and Iraqi government troops came close to open clashes after Baghdad moved a special army unit up to Kirkuk. But that unit is no more. Its commanders and soldiers simply melted away two weeks ago like other Iraqi troops in the north when faced with the potential threat of the group calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) coming their way.

The Kurds, would-be claimants to the throne of Kirkuk, simply slipped in and took over their abandoned positions.

Kurdish troops have also moved in to other mixed or disputed cities in Iraq proper since the advance of ISIS. The Kurds have taken advantage of the chaos in the rest of the country to expand their borders.

Said Stansfield, "If ISIS and [its allies] are successful (the Kurds) will be facing an enemy that will turn its attentions north very quickly."

"We often hear how good the Kurdistan army is, that they're willing to defend Kurdistan to the death," said Stansfield. "But we haven't seen them fully deployed. We haven't seen them face an opponent as brutal, as well organized, as well funded as ISIS and their (allies) that we see here."

READ MORE HERE...

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Now we see the battle lines drawing between the "kings of the Medes" -- the leadership of the modern day Kurds -- and a re-constituted and extremely militant Iraq -- the land of the Chaldeans, the Babylon of Jeremiah's prophecy:

"Behold, I am going to  arouse and bring up against Babylon a horde of great nations from the land of the north, and they will draw up their battle lines against her; from there she will be taken captive... Chaldea will become plunder... Because you are glad, because you are jubilant, O you who pillage my heritage, because you skip about like a threshing heifer and neigh like stallions, your mother will be greatly ashamed, she who gave you birth will be humiliated. Behold, she will be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a parched land and a desert..." Jer 50:9-12

Nouri al-Maliki rejects John Kerry's call for unity government

nbcnews.com June 25, 2014

Iraq's Shiite prime minister appeared Wednesday to reject John Kerry’s call for an emergency unity government to help tackle the Sunni insurgency that has overrun key cities. Nouri al-Maliki rejected forming a "national salvation" government, which he said would go against the results of parliamentary elections held on April 30 in which his coalition won the most seats, The Associated Press reported.

Kerry met Maliki on Iraq on Monday, calling on him to form a “broad-based inclusive government” in exchange for American help in the fight against Sunni militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). However, Maliki on Wednesday said such calls represented a "coup against the constitution and an attempt to end the democratic experience,” the BBC reported.

READ MORE HERE...

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By insisting the Kurds stay in a "unity" government of Iraq to fight the insurgency, Kerry is ensuring the Kurds will stay out of the fight to protect Iraq from a takeover by the Sunni ISIS militia. Once Maliki's government is overwhelmed, and Baghdad falls, the Kurds will have every right to declare independence, as the old Iraq will cease to exist.

Had Kerry and the US acknowledged Kurdistan's right to self-determination and independent statehood, the Kurds would have had negotiating power with Maliki's government to enter the fray and help prop up what is left of the Iraq nation under Shia Muslim rule.

Now, they will simply sit back and watch the demise of Iraq, and declare independence completely free of the constraints of the existing constitution.

All oil fields and production facilities currently under the KRG protection and control, and right to export and keep all its own oil revenues, and the establishment of new, broader borders, will be the windfall from the ISIS revolution.

Kurdistan is about to become a major power in the middle east, and a force to be reckoned with, just as predicted by Jeremiah's prophecy of 2,600 years ago -- "Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers! the LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes [Kurds], because his purpose is against Babylon to destroy it, for it is the vengeance of the LORD..." Jer 51:11

Why now? Because Israel is back in the land. It is a prophecy for the end times, following the third in-gathering of the Jews to the Promised Land. It is the time for the fulfillment of the prophecy --

"In those days and at that time... the sons of Israel will come, both they and the sons of Judah as well; they will go along weeping as they go... They will ask for the way to Zion, turning their faces in its direction; they will come that they may join themselves to the LORD in the everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten... Wander away from the midst of Babylon, and go forth from the land of the Chaldeans... For behold, I am going to arouse and bring up against Babylon a horde of great nations from the land of the north, and they will draw up their battle lines against her, from there she will be taken captive... (and) Chaldea will become plunder..." Jer 50:4-10.

Kurdistan leader Barzani: 'The time is here' for self-determination

by Mick Krever, CNN  June 23rd, 2014

Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani gave his strongest-ever indication on Monday that his region would seek formal independence from the rest of Iraq.

“Iraq is obviously falling apart,” he told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview. “And it’s obvious that the federal or central government has lost control over everything. Everything is collapsing – the army, the troops, the police.”

“We did not cause the collapse of Iraq. It is others who did. And we cannot remain hostages for the unknown,” he said through an interpreter.

“The time is here for the Kurdistan people to determine their future and the decision of the people is what we are going to uphold.”

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.

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.

“Now we are living [in] a new Iraq, which is different completely from the Iraq that we always knew, the Iraq that we lived in ten days or two weeks ago.”

“After the recent events in Iraq, it has been proved that the Kurdish people should seize the opportunity now – the Kurdistan people should now determine their future.”

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.

“I will ask him, ‘How long shall the Kurdish people remain like this?’ The Kurdish people is the one who is supposed to determine their destiny and no one else.”

READ MORE HERE...

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Jeremiah the Hebrew prophet saw the "kings of the Medes" -- the people now known as "Kurds" -- lead their nation into battle against the "land of the Chaldeans" and completely overwhelm and defeat them, plundering their treasures.

When this blog was started in 2006, it seemed impossible that the Kurds would have the power, let alone be able to be considered a "nation", to fulfill this prophecy. Today, not only is Kurdistan on the verge of declaring its independence as a fully autonomous and independent nation, but it has developed into what Forbes calls a "world oil power." Its oil wealth, political and economic stability, and now military strength is becoming recognized by the world.

US committed to helping Iraq

In a www.cnn.com  Mon June 23, 2014 article by Chelsea J. Carter, Hamdi Alkhshali and Susanna Capelouto, CNN, from Baghdad, Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pledge to Iraqi leaders American assistance in fighting militant attacks would be "intense (and) sustained."

Kerry said that President Barack Obama has prepared "a range of options for Iraq" but is not planning to send in additional troops, weapons or ammunition. Obama said if Iraqis cannot come together to answer the militant threat, "there's not going to be a military solution to this problem. There's no amount of American firepower that's going to be able to hold the country together, and I've made that very clear to (Iraqi Prime Minister) Maliki and all the other leadership inside of Iraq."

Over the weekend, the CNN article reports, ISIS militants advanced toward the Iraqi capital of Baghdad and taken the Tal Afar airbase.

Iraqi troops are preparing to counter the move and recapture the facility and the city of Tal Afar.

READ MORE HERE...

Will the cities burn?

Jeremiah pronounced nine judgments upon the land of Babylon, ultimately resulting in complete desolation: "'Thou, O LORD, hast promised concerning this place to cut it off so that there will  be nothing dwelling in it,... but it will be a perpetual desolation.'"

The nine judgments begin with "a great nation [The United States of America] with many kings [The Coalition of the Willing] (being) aroused from the remote parts of the earth. They seize their (weapons); they are cruel and have no mercy [Abu Ghraib tortures]... (They are) marshalled like a man for the battle against you, O (future) daughter of Babylon [Iraq].

"The king of Babylon [Saddam Hussein] has heard the report about them, and his hands hang limp; distress has gripped him, agony like a woman in childbirth. [Samira Shahbandar, Saddam's second wife, said that as the Americans surged into the centre of the capital, Hussein crumbled: "He came to me very depressed and sad. He took me to the next room and cried. He knew he had been betrayed." The Sunday Times Dec 15, 2003]

"Thus says the LORD:... 'I shall dispatch foreigners to Babylon that they may... devastate her land... Devote all her army to destruction. And they will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and pierced through in their streets.'"

The invasion will result in its capture, the second judgment: "Declare and proclaim among the nations...'Babylon has been captured'...  'I set a snare for you, and you were also caught, O Babylon, while you yourself were not aware; you have been found and also seized because you have engaged in conflict with the LORD.'"

Despite what Samira said about her husband -- "If I know my husband, he will not be captured," -- the culmination of this second judgment and the end to all resistance was in fact the capture of the ruler, Saddam Hussein himself, who was hiding in a rat hole in the desert. "In the last analysis, he seemed not terribly brave," quipped US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The third judgment was the execution of the Arrogant One: "I am against you, O arrogant one... For your day has come when I shall punish you. And the arrogant one will stumble and fall [through the trap door of the gallows] with no one to raise him up..." [Saddam's corpse was taunted by those in attendance.]

The hebrew conjunction "and" links the execution to the next judgment: "The arrogant one will... fall with no one to raise him up. And I shall set fire to his cities, and it will devour all his environs." The judgment of fire is repeated: "And her high gates [city centers] will be set on fire; so the peoples will toil for nothing, and the nations become exhausted (because of the) fire."

The exhaustion of the nations because of the fires leads to the fifth judgment: abandonment -- "Bring balm for her pain; perhaps she may be healed. 'We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her judgment has reached to heaven and towers to the very skies.'"

Will the cities of Iraq burn? Is the ISIS militant revolution going to burst into literal flames? Will this be the fulfillment of the fourth judgment?

Is Iraq the Babylon of Jeremiah chapters 50 - 51?

Iraqi Christians fleeing homes: we're not going back

At www.usnews.com on June 16, 2014, DIAA HADID, Associated Press, reports from ALQOSH, Iraq that over the past decade, Iraqi Christians have repeatedly fled to this ancient mountainside village seeking refuge from violence, then returning home when danger passed. As they are doing so again in response to the ISIS militant offensive, many say they will never return to their homes.

Hadid reports that "at least half of the country's Christian population has fled the country to escape attacks by Sunni Muslim militants who target them and their churches."

As they flee, the Christians are emptying out communities that date back to the first centuries of the religion. Iraq was estimated to have more than 1 million Christians before the 2003 invasion and toppling of Saddam Hussein. Now less than half that remain.

Hadid reports that many Christians are deciding that the comparatively prosperous Kurdish regions are their safest haven. "Every Christian prefers to stay in Kurdistan," said Abu Zeid, an engineer. "It's a shame because Mosul is the most important city in Iraq for Christians," he added. Mosul is said to be the burial place of the biblical prophet Jonah, who preached repentance to the people of Nineveh.

READ MORE HERE...

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Jeremiah the prophet called on the people of God to flee from the violence in the land of Chaldea: "Flee from the midst of Babylon, and each of you save his life! Do not be destroyed in her punishment, for this is the LORD's time of vengeance... Come forth from her midst, My people, and each of you save yourselves from the fierce anger of the LORD... You who have escaped the sword, Depart! Do not stay!... The sound of an outcry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans! For the LORD is going to destroy Babylon... " (Jer 51:6,45,50,54).

Back to Iraq: Obama sending military advisors

abcnews.go.com

WASHINGTON — Jun 19, 2014, 9:59 AM

By JULIE PACE and HAMZA HENDAWI Associated Press

Inching back into a fight he tried to leave behind, President Barack Obama announced Thursday he was dispatching 300 U.S. military advisers to Iraq to help quell the rising insurgency in the crumbling nation. [...]

Less than three years after Obama heralded the end of America's war in Iraq, he insisted he was not sending the military back into combat. Still, when coupled with previously announced steps, the president's actions could put about 600 additional U.S. troops in the midst of Iraq's deeply unstable security situation. [...] 

Officials said manned and unmanned U.S. aircraft are now flying over Iraq 24 hours a day on intelligence collection missions. [...]

A leading Sunni tribal chief said Washington's decision to send the military advisers would only make the fighting worse. Sheik Ali Hatem al-Suleiman, whose men are involved in the Sunni insurgency led by the al-Qaida inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, said the violence would end only if al-Maliki stepped down. [...]

The 300 Green Beret special operations forces Obama plans to deploy to Iraq will be focused on assessing the state of the Iraqi security forces, which have struggled to hold off the insurgent advances and in some cases have deserted their units. Initially the deployments will be limited to several teams of about a dozen soldiers apiece who will operate mainly in Baghdad at various Iraqi military headquarters.

READ MORE HERE...

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If the cities burn in the near future, and Obama gives a speech announcing our abandonment of Iraq, the next two judgments of doom on Babylon will have occurred in prophetic succession. It will be proof we are witnessing the fulfillment of a 2,600 year old prophecy in our time.

If he quotes Jeremiah 51:9, a cold shiver will run up my spine: "We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her judgment has reached to the heavens and towers up to the very skies."

Gen. Hayden: The state of Iraq is gone

newsmax.com

Wednesday, 18 Jun 2014 06:53 PM

By Bill Hoffmann and Melissa Clyne

The country of Iraq is, for all intents and purposes, dead and has been replaced by three successor states, former CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden told Newmax TV Wednesday.

"The state of Iraq as we know it is gone, and it's not going to be reconstituted," he told "The Steve Malzberg Show. It's certainly not going to be reconstituted by [Prime Minister] Nouri al-Maliki." [...]

"We've got three successor states there now," Hayden, a retired four star Air Force general added. "As much as we might look for opportunities to keep Iraq together, we need to be prepared for the reality that it's not going to stay together.

"We should snuggle up comfortable with the Kurds in Kurdistan, who have always been pro-American and actually have a functioning society and state right now," Hayden said.

READ MORE HERE...

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Jeremiah prophesied that a nation to the north of the land of Babylon, ruled by the "kings of the Medes", the modern day Kurds, would go to war with the Chaldeans, defeat them, and plunder their treasures.  With Kurdistan on the verge of declaring independence, it looks like this scenario is even more possible today.

"They feel abandoned"

A bbc.com article from June 19, 2014 provides an update to the current conflict in Iraq and the possibility of US military intervention:

Regarding the militant takeover of several towns and cities in Iraq, and the lack of intervention from the US, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Martin Dempsey said on Wednesday, "There is very little that could have been done to overcome the degree to which the government of Iraq has failed its people. That is what has caused this problem."

A spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki's Dawa party, Zuhair al-Nahar, speaking for his government, Sunni Arab leaders and Kurdish officials, told the BBC: "My message from all the leaders in Iraq is that they feel abandoned, that they want America, Europe, the UN, to take immediate action to rectify the military situation."

READ MORE HERE...

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And so Jeremiah's prophecy expresses this same predicament, the abandonment of the nation by those who broke it: "Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken; wail over her! Bring balm for her pain, perhaps she may be healed. 'We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her judgment has reached to heaven and towers up to the very skies," (Jer 51:8-9). 

FORBES: Kurdistan set to become an independent world oil power

6/16/2014 forbes.com  Christopher Helman Forbes Staff

After describing how he was "wrong" last week in stating that the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) might end up being the "unlikely losers" in the chaos of the current conflict between ISIS militants and the Iraqi security forces, Forbes commentator Christopher Helman reversed himself Monday with a new article:

"The Kurd forces appear to be comfortably holding their territory... The consensus now, especially among Kurdish people, is that... 'Iraq' will soon cease to exist altogether... Baghdad’s control over Kirkuk may well be history now that Kurd forces are at long last in control of Kirkuk and have no intention of leaving. "

"With Kurdish independence appearing to grow closer every day", writes Helman, the ability of the KRG to sell their own oil will "initiate a flood of cash to the Kurdish Regional Government, which is now moving inexorably closer to becoming an independent state, and a major world oil power."

READ MORE HERE...

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Jeremiah describes how the Medes, now known as the Kurds, will one day overwhelm the land of Babylon and help destroy her: "For a nation has come up against (Babylon) out of the north; it will make her land an object of horror... They will draw up their battle lines against her; from there she will be taken captive... Chaldea will become plunder; all who plunder her will have enough... The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is against Babylon to destroy it... Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat (Syrian-Turkish Kurds), Minni (Mannaeans/Urartu - Iranian Kurds) and Ashkenaz (Adiabenes - Iraqi Kurds)... Consecrate (these) nations against her, the kings of the Medes... and every land of their dominion. So the land quakes and writhes, for the purposes of the LORD against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitants," (Jer 50-51).

Kurd PM Nechirvan Barzani doubts Iraq unity possible

bbc.com  17 June 2014

The prime minister of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region has told the BBC's Jim Muir he does not believe the country will stay together, as Sunni extremist militants continue to make territorial gains.

Nechirvan Barzani said it would be "almost impossible" for Iraq to return to the situation that existed before the city of Mosul was captured, and that the various factions needed to "sit down and find a way to live together".

SEE VIDEO INTERVIEW HERE...

Historic shift: Turkey would support Kurd's self-rule

In a June 16, 2014 huffingtonpost.com article, dateline ERBIL, Iraq, Ryan Grim from Washington reports on what could be a major shift in Turkey's policy towards Iraq's Kurdish independence. 

"The Kurds of Iraq can decide for themselves the name and type of the entity they are living in," Huseyin Celik, a spokesman for Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party, told the Kurdish online Kurdish media outlet Rudaw last week. Turkey has to this point officially opposed Kurdish independence and the partitioning of Iraq.

Grim writes: "The Kurds have been effectively autonomous since 1991, when the U.S. established a no-fly zone over northern Iraq. Turkey, a strong U.S. ally, has long opposed the creation of an independent Kurdistan so that its own eastern region would not be swallowed into it."

The change may have its root in the desire to provide a buffer between Turkey and the new extremist militant threat posed by ISIS. Turkey and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have developed a strong and vital oil trading partnership, despite protest and interference by the central Iraqi government, which claims it has sole authority over oil in the Kurdistan region.

"The Kurds, like any other nation, will have the right to decide their fate," Celik told Rudaw. "Turkey has been supporting the Kurdistan region till now and will continue this support."

Grim reports: "Turkey recently signed a 50-year energy deal with Iraqi Kurdistan’s semi-autonomous government to export Kurdish oil to the north, and Kurdistan has increased its exports this week despite the insurgency by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria."

VERY IMPORTANT ARTICLE TO READ... READ MORE HERE...

Grim continues:

"Control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk -- known as "the Kurdish Jerusalem" -- has long been an obstacle to independence. The Kurds controlled it briefly in 1991 before Saddam Hussein drove them out amid a horrific chemical weapons attack. Last week,they retook control of the disputed city when Iraqi forces fled ISIS, and it doesn’t look like they’re going to give up the city’s oil reserves. Kirkuk is capable of producing as much as half of all of Iraq's oil exports, although Kirkuk’s pipeline is currently offline following militant attacks in the spring.

"On Tuesday, Sherko Jawdat, the chairman of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Natural Resources Committee, told The Huffington Post that Iraqi Kurdistan is aiming to claim a quarter of Iraq’s total oil sales.

“Oil has become an important political card in the region and the whole world,” he said. “Oil is key to Kurdistan’s economic independence, which will eventually lead to political independence.”

"Syria and Iran have long opposed the creation of an independent Kurdistan, but Turkey has been the most significant obstacle, as it previously threatened to invade the area if the Kurds declared independence. With Syria's Bashar al-Assad and Iraq's Nouri al-Maliki tied up in civil wars, neither seems to be in a position to stop the Kurds from becoming fully independent.

"The United States has also taken a stand against an independent Kurdistan, largely in support of Turkey. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a leading foreign policy voice in conservative circles, was stunned to hear that a Turkish spokesman had opened the door to what the U.S. has so long opposed. "I'm surprised," he told The Huffington Post. "But what about the Kurds in Syria? What about the Kurds in Turkey?"

"He said he worries that it would only create more instability and that he never believed in what he called "the Biden plan," or independent Kurdish, Sunni and Shia states. Vice President Joe Biden strongly pushed for partition during the early stages of the Iraq war.

"The Biden plan of partitioning Iraq never made sense to me because the Sunni areas are held by people kicked out by al Qaeda," he said. "Just absorb what I said. From Aleppo to Baghdad, you're gonna have a radical Islamic Sunni group that was too radical for al Qaeda.

"This is what I worry about if you let Iraq fracture: Iranians are going to own the south. ISIS is going to own everything in the Sunni area, and if the Kurds break away, you've got friction for a long time to come between the Turks and Kurds because there are Kurdish elements in Syria, Iran and Turkey."

"The Kurds, he suggested, would not settle for a state only in what is today Iraq. "If the Kurds break away, are you going to create a movement inside of Syria? Inside of Turkey and Iran to have a Kurdish state that encompasses those people? So this thing could spiral out of control and that could be another front," he said.

"Laura Magnuson, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said that she would "refer [HuffPost] to the Turks regarding their views on Iraq."

"Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, meanwhile, was much more open to Kurdish independence, suggesting that regional players must decide what's best. "That's such a complex part of the world over there and it's not up to the United States to answer questions like that," he said. "It's for those folks to answer.""

Kurds have no plans to leave Kirkuk

telegraph.co.uk
By Ruth Sherlock, video by Sam Tarling   16 Jun 2014

Iraq's Kurds have seized the chance created by the current crisis to capture more territory and build the foundations of a future independent state.

From their autonomous enclave in northern Iraq, Kurdish “Peshmerga” fighters have advanced to take over disputed areas, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which they claim as their capital.

The Iraqi army has been in no position to resist thanks to the onslaught mounted by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), an al-Qaeda affiliate. The Peshmerga have even been able to take over abandoned military bases.

Kurdish leaders view the sudden collapse of the Iraqi state across the north of with barely concealed glee, regarding this as a unique opportunity to strengthen their own hand.

Yousif Mohammed Sadiq, the parliamentary speaker of the Kurdish Regional Government, told The Telegraph that the capture of Kirkuk was justified and there was no question of the Peshmerga relinquishing their gains.

READ HERE...

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Jeremiah prophesied that a "great nation" north of the land of Babylon, peopled by the "Medes", would battle the Chaldeans, defeat them, and plunder their treasures. Today the Medes are known as the Kurds, and we are on the verge of those people declaring their independence and establishing a nation of Kurdistan that stretches across the entire northern boundary of Iraq, from Iran to Syria.

While Iraq disintegrates, Kurdistan consolidates its power, wealth and influence. From humble subservience to Saddam just a decade ago, it is becoming a "great nation" before our eyes. Just as Jeremiah foresaw.

Kurds take control of Nineveh Province

from rudaw.net by Nawzad Mahmoud June 17, 2014

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish forces are in control of all their claimed but disputed territories in Nineveh and Kirkuk, but facing a harder task in Diyala which is a stronghold of armed Islamist groups in Iraq, Kurdish officials said.

Large parts of Nineveh province, including the capital Mosul, fell into the hands of the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) last week, among them areas that fall within the “disputed territories” claimed by both the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the central government in Baghdad. 

After the Iraqi army beat a hasty retreat and deserted en masse, the Kurds moved into areas left vacant by the fleeing soldiers.

“The Kurds have regained all of their conquered lands in Nineveh,” said Muhammed Ihsan, the KRG representative in Baghdad. “In the province, 100 percent of the taken areas have been retained by the Peshmerga forces” he said.

Out of nearly 36,000 square kilometers that make up Nineveh, “14,666 square kilometers are now under the control of the Peshmerga forces, and out of the hand of the Iraqi army and ISIS,” he said.

“Nineveh is the only province in which all the Kurdistani areas have been back in to the hands of the Peshmerga forces,” he added.

READ MORE HERE....

Kurds: Iraq no longer our neighbor

from news.vice.com June 17, 2014

In an interview with VICE News, Falah Mustafa, the head of foreign relations for the Kurdistan Regional Government, expressed skepticism that Iraq would ever be whole again. "Iraq is not our neighbor," he said. "ISIS is now our neighbor."

Kurdish forces seized the oil-rich city of Kirkuk days ago after government troops abandoned their positions. Mustafa said that it was unlikely that the KRG would again surrender the city, as it had in 2003.

He also dismissed rumors that the KRG was negotiating with the Iraqi government to deploy peshmerga forces further into disputed territories in exchange for increased oil revenue. "We cannot be blackmailed," he said, adding that the KRG's actions had abided by the constitution.

Mustafa added that there was no longer any trust in the Maliki government, and called its refusal to provide the KRG with budgetary funds for the past six months an act of "economic warfare."

READ MORE HERE...

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The Jeremiah prophecy identifies a nation to the north of the land of Babylon, made of of three factions of the "Medes", the modern-day Kurds, who are drawn in to a battle with the Chaldeans, defeat and then plunder them. While once unthinkable that the Kurds could be powerful enough to defeat the U.S.-trained and equipped Iraqi army, today's news reports announce the growing power and consolidation of the Kurds and the shrinking power, division and strife of the Chaldeans, as they battle each other for political control of the land of Babylon.

ISIS advances on Baquba as Kurds fight to reclaim Saadiya

By Laura Smith-Spark, Nic Robertson and Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN

updated 1:06 PM EDT, Tue June 17, 2014

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- As Islamic militants continue their murderous advance across Iraq, they have a new target in their sights: the city of Baquba, less than 40 miles north of Baghdad.

Gun battles erupted in the city, only a 45-minute drive from the capital, on Tuesday as fighters and Iraqi government forces clashed.

Civilians are fleeing violence there and elsewhere in Iraq even as the United States bolsters its manpower in the region while it mulls what action to take.

READ MORE HERE...

Kurdish security sources also reported fighting around Saadiya, about 55 miles (89 kilometers) north of Baghdad, as Kurdish fighters, known as Peshmerga, seek to retake control from ISIS militants there. The two sides are also battling for control of Bashir village, southwest of Kirkuk city, as terrified civilians flee shelling by ISIS.

"He who controls Kirkuk, controls Iraq"

Tanya Goudsouzian writes for www.aljazeera.com June 16, 2014 on the recent takeover of Kirkuk by the Kurdistan peshmerga security forces and its affect on Turkey following the gains of the ISIS militants and the abandonment of multiple towns by the Iraqi military.

Goudsouzian cites an old Iraqi saying, "He who controls Kirkuk, controls Iraq", and notes that the "word on the Kurdish street is this may be the opportune moment to either annex the city to the (Kurdistan Regional Government), or more controversially, make a unilateral declaration of independence."

Goudsouzian quotes Ihsan Yilmaz, a Turkish political analyst: "In the past, Turkey did not want Kurds to have Kirkuk as they did not want them to grow richer and more powerful... But the AKP - with its neo-Ottoman vision - has persuaded the Kemalist establishment that Turkey must be friendly with Iraqi Kurdistan..."

Joseph A. Kechichian, a senior fellow at the Riyadh-based King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, is quoted by Goudsouzian as saying, "Ultimately,... Ankara cannot overlook the rise of genuine Kurdish power next door, and must come to terms with the irredentist claims made by Kurds..."

READ MORE HERE...

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Jeremiah prophesied that a nation north of the land of Babylon would be great, and would defeat and plunder Chaldea. That nation would be led by the kings of the Medes, who today are the Kurds. Until recently, it seemed preposterous that the Kurds could be considered "powerful", let alone even have a country of their own, yet here they are, on the verge of declaring their independence, and being described by analysts as having "genuine... power", and growing "richer" and more "powerful" by the hour.

Militants carry out mass executions

excerpts from www.foxnews.com, June 16, 2014, Associated Press contribution

Photos posted on an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) Twitter account claimed to show Sunni militants carrying out a mass execution of Iraqi Shia air force recruits in Tikrit. The images show recruits being loaded onto flatbed trucks and being forced to lie down in a ditch with their hands tied behind them before they were shot.

Captions accompanying the photos boasted that as many as 1,700 recruits had been executed in this way.

Iraq's chief military spokesman, Lieutenant General Qassim al-Moussawi, told Sky News that he believed the photographs were authentic.

 Meanwhile, Sunni militants captured Tal Afar, approximately 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, before dawn on Monday.

"Residents are gripped by fear and most of them have already left the town to areas held by Kurdish security forces," said Tal Afar resident Hadeer al-Abadi, as he prepared to leave with his family.

READ MORE HERE...

Kurds 'fully control Kirkuk'

BBC News Middle East
12 June 2014

Kurdish fighters outside Kirkuk on Wednesday - PHOTO: REUTERS

Iraqi Kurdish forces say they have taken full control of the northern oil city of Kirkuk as the army flees before an Islamist offensive nearby.

"The whole of Kirkuk has fallen into the hands of peshmerga," Kurdish spokesman Jabbar Yawar told Reuters. "No Iraq army remains in Kirkuk now."

Kurdish fighters are seen as a bulwark against Sunni Muslim insurgents.

READ MORE HERE...

Iranian RG forces help al-Maliki retake control of Tikrit

The Wall Street Journal
by FARNAZ FASSIHI  June 12, 2014

BEIRUT, Lebanon—Iran deployed Revolutionary Guard forces to fight in Iraq, helping government troops there wrest back control of most of the city of Tikrit from militants, Iranian security sources said.

Two battalions of the Quds Forces, the overseas branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps that has long operated in Iraq, came to the aid of the besieged, Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, they said.

Combined Iraqi-Iranian forces retook control of 85% of Tikrit, the birthplace of former dictator Saddam Hussein, according to Iraqi and Iranian security sources.

They were helping guard the capital Baghdad and the two Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, which have been threatened by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, an al Qaeda offshoot. The Sunni militant group's lightning offensive has thrown Iraq into its worse turmoil since the sectarian fighting that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

READ MORE HERE...

The beginning of the end of Iraq?

One of my favorite world affairs columnists, Michael J. Totten, provides an insightful commentary today on the ISIS militant surge towards Baghdad at worldaffairsjournal.org, titled "The Beginning of the End of Iraq?"

Totten began his piece with an update: "Al Qaeda has taken the Iraqi city of Tikrit and the Kurdish Peshmerga has taken the Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Iraq's army fled both and hardly fired a shot."

What he wrote next stopped me short: "God only knows what happens next".

Yeah, that's what I've been saying, since 2006. God not only knows, but told Jeremiah what was going to happen next.

Totten continues, clearly in tune with what is going to happen next: "In the future we might see the events of the last few days as the beginning of the end of Iraq as a state".

Actually, the invasion of 2003 (Judgment 1) was the 'beginning' of the end, with Saddam's capture (Judgment 2) and execution (Judgment 3) the next sequential events in the prophecy of doom on the land of Babylon shown to Jeremiah about 2,600 years ago.

Totten makes one prophetic statement after another: "But we are not going to save Iraq".

Oh so right. Judgment 4 is the cities burning, with Judgment 5 the complete abandonment of that land by the reconstructionists (Jer 51:9 -- "We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her judgment has reached to heaven...").

I like how Totten writes. He concludes: "This is the time of festering."

That is one way of putting it.

READ MORE OF TOTTEN HERE...

Kurds take control of Kirkuk as Sunni militants surge toward Baghdad

www.reuters.com

BY AHMED RASHEED AND ISABEL COLES

BAGHDAD/ARBIL Iraq Thu Jun 12, 2014 12:03pm EDT

(Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdish forces took control of the northern oil city of Kirkuk on Thursday, after government troops abandoned their posts in the face of a triumphant Sunni Islamist rebel march towards Baghdad that threatens Iraq's future as a unified state.

In Mosul, Sunni militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant staged a parade of American Humvee patrol cars seized from a collapsing Iraqi army in the two days since ISIL fighters drove out of the desert and overran the northern metropolis. At Baiji, near Kirkuk, they surrounded Iraq's largest oil refinery.

At Mosul, which had a population close to two million before the weeks events forced hundreds of thousands to flee, witnesses saw ISIL fly two helicopters over the parade, apparently the first time the militant group has obtained aircraft in years of waging insurgency on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian frontier.

READ MORE HERE...

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Once the militants have taken over control of the Iraqi government, there will be no reason for the Kurdistan Regional Government not to declare independence, which will set up a scenario for conflict between the two forces. Jeremiah prophesies that after the cities of Iraq burn (Judgment 4), and the reconstructionists abandon their efforts and leave Iraq to face its future alone (Judgment 5), the nation will be invaded by armies from the north, led by the "kings of the Medes", today known as the Kurds of Kurdistan (Judgment 6). The Chaldeans (Iraqis) will be defeated by the Medes (Kurds), who will then plunder the "treasures" of Iraq (Judgment 7). A catastrophic flood event will wipe out the cities of Iraq (Judgment 8), and then severe drought sets in (Judgment 9) to render the nation desolate and uninhabitable (Final Outcome).

If the cities of Iraq go up in flames soon, the Judgments will have resumed in sequential order to the above.  

Iraq militants push towards Baghdad

nytimes.com
by SUADAD AL-SALHY and TIM ARANGO June 11, 2014

Families fleeing violence in Iraq’s Nineveh Province gathered at a checkpoint west of Erbil in the autonomous region of Kurdistan. CreditSafin Hamed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

BAGHDAD — Sunni militants consolidated and extended their control over northern Iraq on Wednesday, seizing Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein, threatening the strategic oil refining town of Baiji and pushing south toward Baghdad, their ultimate target, Iraqi sources said.

As the dimensions of the assault began to become clear, it was evident that a number of militant groups had joined forces, including Baathist military commanders from the Hussein era, whose goal is to rout the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

READ MORE HERE....

Iraq army capitulates to ISIS militants in four cities

Martin Chulov and Fazel Hawramy in Irbil and Spencer Ackerman in New York
theguardian, Wednesday, 11 June 2014

Half a million people on the move after gunmen seize four cities and pillage army bases and banks

Burnt vehicles belonging to Iraqi security forces at a checkpoint in east Mosul, after insurgents seized control of the city. Photograph: Reuters

Iraq is facing its gravest test since the US-led invasion more than a decade ago, after its army capitulated to Islamist insurgents who have seized four cities and pillaged military bases and banks, in a lightning campaign which seems poised to fuel a cross-border insurgency endangering the entire region.

The extent of the Iraqi army's defeat at the hands of militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) became clear on Wednesday when officials in Baghdad conceded that insurgents had stripped the main army base in the northern city of Mosul of weapons, released hundreds of prisoners from the city's jails and may have seized up to $480m in banknotes from the city's banks.

Iraqi officials told the Guardian that two divisions of Iraqi soldiers – roughly 30,000 men – simply turned and ran in the face of the assault by an insurgent force of just 800 fighters. Isis extremists roamed freely on Wednesday through the streets of Mosul, openly surprised at the ease with which they took Iraq's second largest city after three days of sporadic fighting.

Senior government officials in Baghdad were equally shocked, accusing the army of betrayal and claiming the sacking of the city was a strategic disaster that would imperil Iraq's borders.

The developments seriously undermine US claims to have established a unified and competent military after more than a decade of training. The US invasion and occupation cost Washington close to a trillion dollars and the lives of more than 4,500 of its soldiers. It is also thought to have killed at least 100,000 Iraqis.

READ MORE HERE...

Second Iraq city falls to militants

June 11, 2014  Associated Press
www.foxnews.com

BAGHDAD –  Al-Qaeda-inspired militants seized effective control Wednesday of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, expanding their offensive closer to the Iraqi capital as soldiers and security forces abandoned their posts following clashes with the insurgents.

Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took control a day earlier of much of Mosul, the country's second-largest city, in a major blow to the authority of the country's Shiite government and a sign of Iraq's reversals since U.S. forces withdrew in late 2011.

READ MORE HERE...

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Will the fires start this week? Is June 13, 2014 a significant date in the timeline of Jeremiah's judgments?