Is partition the only answer for Iraq?

WASHINGTON DC - Just shortly after Iraqis marked the 13th anniversary of the US-led invasion of their country, US Vice President Joe Biden called Iraq’s top two leaders: Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi and the Kurdistan Region’s President Masoud Barzani.

He urged them to continue to work together, demanding that Barzani remain committed to “a unified and democratic” Iraq.Barzani says Iraq is neither united nor democratic, vowing to hold an independence referendum this year.

It has been 13 years since the United States removed Iraq’s longtime dictator, Saddam Hussein, allowing the people of the country to experience democracy and elect their leaders.What are the results of Iraq’s experience of democracy? Especially in a society where people lack basic needs such as electricity and while large parts of the country remain under the control of the terrorist group known as ISIS, or Daesh.

Thirteen years after the war, where is Iraq heading? Can it survive as a unified country or has the time for its partition, as the Kurds claim, arrived.

Watch the discussion with:

Nussaidah Younis, a senior fellow at the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council. She was part of a team of researchers recently visiting Iraq and Kurdistan to write a report examining Iraq’s political situation.

Matthew McInnis, a former senior analyst at the Department of Defense, is currently a senior Middle East expert with the American Enterprise Institute.

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