DOHUK, Iraq – Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson took part in the Middle East Peace and Security (MEPS) Forum on Nov. 20 in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). 

Johnson praised the local Peshmerga forces for their efforts against the Islamic State (ISIS), noting that they were “in the forefront of the fight against an evil death cult”.

He reminisced about his previous visits to the region, when he “came out here to see what the UK armed services were doing to help, to help the Peshmerga, to help the Kurds, because after all we in London were facing the same challenge in our city from people who were being infected by the same nihilist ideology and literally the same, and who were killing innocent people in London in appalling terrorist attacks, bombings, stabbings, as you will remember.” 

Posing with an AK-47

“And I remember going out to a military camp near Erbil in defiance of the wishes of my Foreign Office advisors, I think. And I met some UK officers who were training the Peshmerga and I saw an AK-47 lying there and they said, Mr. Mayor, whatever you do, don't pick up that gun, you mustn't be pictured with a gun,” he said. 

“And I ignored them completely, of course,” he added proudly. “I posed lying on the ground, pointing the AK-47 in what I thought was the general direction of Daesh, of ISIS. And I had no hesitation in doing that, because I feel a solidarity with the Kurds and with your struggle and you then went on to overcome that enemy.”

The former UK prime minister then went on to say that he had “learned from that the importance of the Kurdistan and of the Kurdish people in the fight against extremism.”

“And if I have one message to you today,” he said, “is that the UK, State, Britain, the United Kingdom, as long as I have anything to do with it and beyond, will continue to stand with you. Because that threat can emerge again. And I'm afraid I'm starting to see signs, some signs, that it is going to emerge again. And together, we've got to do everything in our power to make sure that that kind of nihilistic, death cult extremism never again threatens the people of Kurdistan or the region.”

Economic reforms and unity

“And I want to say how much I congratulate Prime Minister Barzani on what you've been doing, on your economic reforms, on what you're doing with digital banking. It's got to be done. I think a government in the UK is taking a while to do some of these vital reforms,” Johnson added. 

He then noted “how good it is to see the unity of Kurdish politics incarnated here on the front row in the form of the KDP and the PUK,” the two main rival political parties in the Kurdistan.  

“And I'm delighted to see that there are now more than 200 companies, British companies, that are doing business here, and that our trade is up 83% year on year, and that one company in Halabja alone last year exported 22 tonnes of pomegranates,” he said. 

“Can you believe that? 22 tons of pomegranates to the United Kingdom, which is a lot of pomegranates. And we have done that, and we're doing that even without direct flights between London and Erbil,” he added. 

“So thank you very much for your kindness in inviting me today, and may the ideas germinating in this conference, may the seeds of the ideas be as densely packed and as profuse as the seeds of a halabja pomegranate itself, and may our friendship grow ever stronger, and the partnership between the UK and the people of Kurdistan go from strength to strength,” he concluded. 

He was then given a crate of pomegranates and local honey as a sign of appreciation.