Iraqi-Kurdish former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, MP Nadhim Zahawi, speaking to Rudaw in Dubai on February 12, 2024. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish people have become a “free hit” for actors in the Middle East who want to attack Israel but are unable to, British MP and former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi said on Monday, nearly a month after Iranian missiles killed innocent civilians in Erbil.
“Unfortunately, and this really does break my heart, it does feel like the Kurds are a free hit for people who want to, or do not have the capability, to actually do anything else … they speak about wanting to attack Israel but instead they attack the Kurds,” Zahawi, an Iraqi-Kurd, told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai.
Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on January 15 attacked the Kurdistan Region’s capital of Erbil with at least ten ballistic missiles under the pretext of targeting “spy headquarters” of anti-Iran groups and Mossad bases in the Region. The strikes killed at least four civilians and injured 17 others.
Among the dead was prominent Kurdish businessman Peshraw Dizayee, a man alleged by Iran to have played a role in selling oil to Israel and having ties with Mossad - claims strongly denied by the Iraqi and Kurdish governments, as well as his family.
“We condemn what happened in Erbil a few weeks ago. Kak Peshraw Dizayee was an innocent man who was murdered, I think, unlawfully,” Zahawi said. “It is unfair to level these smears against someone like Peshraw Dizayee and to murder him in cold blood.”
Zahawi labeled Iran’s actions as an “incredibly cowardly way to behave in the region.”
Zahawi arrived in the UK as a child from Iraq with his Kurdish family without speaking any English at the time. He started his political career in 2010 when he was elected as Conservative MP for Stratford-on-Avon.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) vehemently rejected Iran’s accusations and categorically denied the existence of Israeli intelligence bases in the Kurdistan Region.
UK Ambassador to Baghdad Stephen Hitchen at the time condemned the attack on Erbil as “a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
An Iraqi parliamentary committee investigating the incident concluded later in January that Dizayee’s house – the targeted area – was a residential building and not a Mossad base, as claimed by Iran.
“Unfortunately, and this really does break my heart, it does feel like the Kurds are a free hit for people who want to, or do not have the capability, to actually do anything else … they speak about wanting to attack Israel but instead they attack the Kurds,” Zahawi, an Iraqi-Kurd, told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai.
Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on January 15 attacked the Kurdistan Region’s capital of Erbil with at least ten ballistic missiles under the pretext of targeting “spy headquarters” of anti-Iran groups and Mossad bases in the Region. The strikes killed at least four civilians and injured 17 others.
Among the dead was prominent Kurdish businessman Peshraw Dizayee, a man alleged by Iran to have played a role in selling oil to Israel and having ties with Mossad - claims strongly denied by the Iraqi and Kurdish governments, as well as his family.
“We condemn what happened in Erbil a few weeks ago. Kak Peshraw Dizayee was an innocent man who was murdered, I think, unlawfully,” Zahawi said. “It is unfair to level these smears against someone like Peshraw Dizayee and to murder him in cold blood.”
Zahawi labeled Iran’s actions as an “incredibly cowardly way to behave in the region.”
Zahawi arrived in the UK as a child from Iraq with his Kurdish family without speaking any English at the time. He started his political career in 2010 when he was elected as Conservative MP for Stratford-on-Avon.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) vehemently rejected Iran’s accusations and categorically denied the existence of Israeli intelligence bases in the Kurdistan Region.
UK Ambassador to Baghdad Stephen Hitchen at the time condemned the attack on Erbil as “a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
An Iraqi parliamentary committee investigating the incident concluded later in January that Dizayee’s house – the targeted area – was a residential building and not a Mossad base, as claimed by Iran.
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