affected by this. and he has made clear, ever since he became president, that the human rights, universal rights, are not something in which, which are going to get in the way of his foreign policy. in the long term, i think this sends a message to autocrats around the world, and the strongman leaders to whom the president has tried to forge relationships, that there won t be a price for this kind of behavior. in fact, in two speeches to the u.n. general assembly so far, the president has basically made clear that he has a vision of sovereignty that does not you include interfering in the activities of foreign governments. i think that is the long-term message that is going to send, once this crisis is resolved. and sam, it is interesting, because while you have the president who has weighed in, first, you know, he was quite wobbly on the whole notion that it happened or could happen, and
under autocrats who have lived under strongman leaders, that they are recognizing in trump in the election of trump the sort of warning signs or is that recognition just going to other direction while we re looking around the world for advice? no, i think you are seeing that. and perhaps it s hyperbole in their cases, but in europe where they re watching this, they re seeing right now particularly in central and eastern europe, the rise of populist parties, sort of a disintegration of the traditional eu values. right now they re all saying that trump is very much
protected from a dictator s weapons by u.s. and british fighter jets with no fly zones and these are the same kurds according to the u.s. military who you better have at your side when your enemy on the battlefield is islamic state and yet not the u.s. not the u.k. not the european union no one except israel has voiced support for kurdish independence instead the kurds neighbors have moved to isolate and cut off the region from the rest of the world airlines from egypt and jordan have stopped all flights to the kurdish city of erbil iran and turkey have held military exercises on the border with the kurdish region just this week and don t forget about the oil baghdad s government is sending federal troops to take control of all fields in the kurdish region a showdown between a club of strongman leaders and the people who used the ballot box to declare their desire to be free. euphoric scenes among iraq s could zap to the official result
a club of strongman leaders and the people who used the ballot box to declare their desire to be free. euphoric scenes among iraq s kurds after the official result was announced kurdish authorities say that with a seventy three percent voter turnout the poll had been a resoundingly success. at this historic moment i want to congratulate you on the success of the referendum on the independence of kurdistan in our autonomous region and the areas outside the autonomous region which kurdistan claims. in baghdad the reaction couldn t be more different iraq s government opposes the kurdish push for statehood and has demanded an immediate an element of the vote. of our position on the kurdish referendum is firm and clear we oppose the process because it does not conform with the constitution it has no legal basis and did lacks legitimacy its result has no binding power on the federal government in baghdad and no legal effect we will never acknowledge the result for