The Telegraph Praises President Bafel and Qubad Talabani

PUKMEDIA

PUK President Bafel Jalal Talabani and his brother, Kurdistan Region Deputy PM Qubad Talabani.

The British newspaper The Telegraph has highlighted the role of Bafel Jalal Talabani, President of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and his brother Qubad Talabani, in helping to prevent the Kurdistan Region from being drawn into the Iran war.

The report noted that the two brothers played a key role in discouraging Kurdish involvement in the conflict, resisting pressure and speculation that Kurdish forces could be used as a “tip of the spear” in a potential ground escalation.

According to the newspaper, their diplomatic engagement and communication with regional and international actors contributed to maintaining stability and keeping the Kurdistan Region from becoming directly entangled in the conflict.

In its report, the newspaper recalled that at the outset of the Iran war, U.S. President Donald Trump held phone calls with Kurdish officials, including President Bafel.

Following the calls, widespread media speculation emerged suggesting that President Trump was seeking to foment a U.S.-backed ground invasion of Iran launched from Iraqi territory. However, subsequent reports indicated that no such request was made during the conversations, and that the claims were largely based on unverified speculation surrounding the content of the calls.

The Telegraph said in its report that the speculation put President Bafel went on the defensive, working to pull the wider Kurdish community back from the brink of war, with his appearance on Fox News and down playing the idea of Kurdish ground offensive.

“Kurdistan needs to be a bridge, not a battlefield,” he said. “The Kurds are uniquely positioned as being your great allies and a partner and a neighbour of Iran. I think we’re uniquely positioned to play a role in de-escalation when the time is appropriate.”

“We stand ready, as always with our friends and allies to try to bring stability, peace and prosperity to this region that truly has suffered from far too many wars and far too many conflicts,” he added.

The Telegraph noted that Iran was making good in public on the warning delivered in private by a delegation sent the day after the U.S. President call to meet Iraqi officials, including the Talabani brothers, making clear the regime would “strike and survive”.

Fighting against a worst-case scenario has been no simple endeavour in Iraq, the only country hit by both sides after the US and Israel went to war against Iran on 28 February.

The Telegraph also noted that President Bafel and Deputy PM Qubad Talabani are an unlikely duo to lead the charge as regional, not federal, officials. But with other officials refusing to address tensions publicly the job has fallen to them, much as they were both thrust years ago into the family business, as their late father Jalal Talabani was the first elected president after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The Telegraph added that thanks to their upbringing, the Talabani brothers have the ability to speak to all parties involved: the U.S., Israel, Iran, and the wider Kurdish community, spread across four countries in the region.

The report also mentioned how President Bafel is well-versed in military strategy and how he named his son Koban after a major 2014 battle in neighbouring Syria against the Islamic State terror group.

It also described him as a man of little patience for pretence and prefers his fatigues, often driving around alone with no security despite his role as a senior politician, stating that he is focused far more on the message to deliver, rather than the idea of donning a suit for official meetings.

The Telegraph dscribed Qubad Talabani as an orderly and process-oriented in both his professional and personal life, traits that relatives say suit him well as a government official.

The report also mention how President Bafel was born in Baghdad and his brother Qubad in Beirut, both in the 1970s and how their maternal grandparents, major Kurdish activists and intellectuals who fled persecution in Iraq, chose to raise them in the UK.

The report also also mentioned how the two brothers' parents stayed behind in a tented mountain hideout to battle Saddam’s Ba’athist rule. 

By the time “Mam Jalal”, or “Uncle Jalal”, became president in 2005, The Telegraph report said, Qubad had graduated with an engineering degree from London’s Kingston University. He had also left behind dreams of playing football and a girlfriend in the UK, instead moving to Washington to represent the nascent Kurdistan regional government.

The report noted that President Bafel, meanwhile, emerged as a key figure in the Iraqi security sphere, launching an elite special forces unit back home after undergoing military training with Western forces, including the French, British and Americans, as described by his political party.

Eventually both brothers found themselves back in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq with deep resumes to carry on their father’s legacy after his death in 2017.

The Telegraph report said that the two brothers' back-channelling has thrown Iraq a lifeline, as the federal government in Baghdad has struggled to calm tensions, hampered by a fraught political transition and little leverage over entrenched Iranian influence in domestic politics and governance.

The report also pointed Qubad Talabani's interview with Channel 4, where he said of the Iranian Kurdish opposition groups: “We have had a longstanding relationship with them. They have been here for a very long time.” 

“Our message to them was one of caution. Be cautious, be smart, be strategic,” Qubad said, in his only public interview since the war broke out.” 

“Understand the landscape. Understand what’s on the other side of this border. Don’t rush into anything that could cause you significant damage, or that could cause Kurdish areas of Iran significant damage.”

The Telegraph said that Qubad Talabani's message appears to have sunk in, mentioning statements from Iranian Kurdish groups, who mentioned they were ready to act only if the U.S. guaranteed air cover to clear the way.

The Telegraph also mentions President Bafel's interview with Fox News in week one of the war, where he said: “Perhaps Kurds being the tip of the spear is not the way to go.”

It also mentioned another interview of President Bafel in week two of the war, where he was reaffirmed: “I firmly believe Kurds being the tip of the spear is an absolute disaster.”



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