Israel behind Iraqi kurds

[grandpakhalif]

In other words, Israel appears to have been harboring its own
designs on the KRG's oil wealth for quite some time. On Monday 23
June, the Kurdish tanker SCF Altai unloaded its cargo at the
Israeli oil port of Ashkelon. The Israeli journalist Ksenia
Svetlova explains that those "who monitor Kurdish-Israeli
relations were not surprised. The ties between Israel and the
Kurds began in the early 1960s, when Israeli intelligence agents
operated in Iraqi Kurdistan and helped local authorities. The
level of cooperation increased significantly after the fall of
Saddam Hussein, with Israeli contractors and companies entering
Iraqi Kurdistan and routine reports in Iraqi media about Israeli
commandos training the Kurdish peshmerga". These close links
were however never officially acknowledged, and Svetlova
recognizes that "Israel is neither the closest nor the most
important ally for any future Kurdish state,” mentioning
Turkey and Iran. With the emergence of the Islamic State (or the
terrorist group formerly known as ISIS) a number of previously
quite hidden relationships have come out in the open. Turkey,
Syria, Iraq, and Iran are all inter-linked due to their local
Kurdish populations, and in combination with the hydrocarbon
wealth wielded by some, Israel has been insinuating itself as
well into that geographical fix as well.