OTTAWA -- A senior representative for Iraq's Kurdish government says Canada and its allies failed Iraq by ignoring the country's many political, religious and economic divisions while fighting the so-called Islamic State.
Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the Kurds' top diplomat in Washington, says it was those long-standing issues that led to ISIS's rise more than three years ago -- and continue to tear the country apart.
Abdul Rahman's comments come amid growing concerns about the future of Iraq, where Kurdish and Iraqi military forces have engaged in several battles over land that both sides claim as their own.
Some are also beginning to sound the alarm about the slow rate of reconstruction in areas liberated from ISIS, particularly those occupied by Sunnis, and Iran's growing influence in Baghdad.
Canada and its allies have been relatively silent about what is happening, with Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan instead urging all sides to focus on finishing the fight against ISIS.
But Abdul Rahman tells The Canadian Press that it is past time the international community stop being "laser-focused" on fighting ISIS and begin addressing Iraq's many underlying problems.
