India has decided to
open a Consulate in the Kurdish-dominated
northern Iraqi city of Erbil on the
edge of battles two separate coalitions
are waging against the Islamic State
(IS), in a rare wartime diplomatic
expansion, The Telegraph reports
on May 5.
The move signals a foray
into a conflict New Delhi has largely
shunned, and represents preparations
for a post-war scenario where India
expects the Kurdish minority of Iraq
to play a crucial role, senior officials
stated.
A Consulate in Erbil would
in the short run allow India to quietly
revive diplomatic attempts to rescue
39 Indians abducted by the IS in July
2014 in Mosul, now a key hub for the
terror group. Erbil is the nearest
large city that is not under IS control.
But in the long run, the Consulate
would allow India to build deeper
diplomatic ties with a prospective
independent Kurdish state.
The decision to open the new consulate was first conveyed to the Kurdish
authorities in November 2014, officials said, when diplomat Suresh
Reddy, a special envoy the Modi government had appointed to try and
rescue the abducted Indians, visited Erbil.
Kurdistan, though a part of Iraq, enjoys significant regional autonomy
under the constitution adopted by Baghdad in the post-Saddam Hussein
era.
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