The internal conflict between Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is another example of inter-imperialist conflict between China and United States. The New Silk Road is a part of China’s strategy to protect their oil supply from the U.S. Navy.
The nationalist crisis can be traced back to World War I. After the war, the British and French imperialists carved up the Ottoman Empire, leaving the Kurdish people (spread across Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Armenia) without the statehood they were promised.
Iraqi Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous region within Iraq, passed an independence referendum with a 73 percent turnout and 93 percent yes vote. A civil war between the Kurdish and Iraq is heating up. There’s fighting between the KRG’s and Iraq’s armed forces over control of the oil fields around Kirkuk.
At the heart of it are the vast oil fields at the edge of Kirkuk. Its oil reserves are estimated at 45 billion barrels.
Russia, Threat to U.S.
Russia, a major imperialist, did not condemn the independence referendum. Russia has invested in Kurdistan and signed a 20-year deal to buy Kurdistan’s oil and refine it in Germany. In retaliation, the U.S. began to pass new sanctions against Russia, but said that the new sanctions were over Ukraine. These sanctions also affected Germany (see CHALLENGE 8/30).  
Russia announced they plan to build a pipeline from the Kurdistan region to the Black Sea region. They would ensure that Turkey would get a piece of the pipeline action running through it to both Europe and Asia. Letting Turkey in on the deal has sent alarm bells to the U.S.-Saudi-NATO struggle to maintain their control of the world’s oil.
Russia’s presence in the Mediterranean Sea and Middle East is at a greater level than even during the former Soviet Union. Russia and China are directly challenging the Carter Doctrine that any threat to Middle Eastern oil is a direct threat to the U.S.
China’s Pivot to the Middle East
China’s strategy is clear after looking at a map of the New Silk Road. Taking advantage of U.S. decline and rising racism, China seeks exert greater control in the Middle East.  
 [U.S.] is moving out of this region and the US President pledged to build walls…to international immigrants and in particular Muslims, [it] has forced these countries to look east…China’s vital energy interests in the region have given it reasons to take a larger interest in regional security…With the Completion of the Gulf Pearl Chain, China can achieve...control of its energy needs and will open a new markets and trade routes for the Gulf Countries (China Daily, 6/5).
China plans to make Northern Iraq an important economic hub. They’ll either do business with Iraq or Kurdistan. They maintained a close economic relationship with the Kurdish oil industry. The conflict? The U.S. has spent billions of dollars in the Iraqi Kurdistan, and won’t allow China to buy oil companies that have already signed deals with Kurdistan. They will try to use their influence in Iraq to ensure it is U.S. imperialism that controls the oil, not China. They will push back against “the secession of Iraqi Kurdistan [that] would allow China to cut lucrative bilateral deals with Kurdish companies” (The Diplomat, 10/5).
As ISIS is a lesser concern for Iraq, they are continuing to occupy Kirkuk and the oil fields around it. Kurdistan’s forces continue to retreat before Iraq and it remains to be seen how China will profit from this new proxy war. It is a strategic necessity for the U.S. to maintain their dominance over the oil in the Middle East.
Regardless of the flag waving and nationalism being spread in Kurdistan (and Catalonia, see page 2) there are no good guys. The working class is being misled by nationalism. The only flag the working class should wave is PLP’s red flag of communism.