Lobbying 2014: Kurdistan Regional Government looks to strike out on its own

The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq (KRG) has hired some of the best lobbying and PR talent in Washington to convince the United States to start treating it like a sovereign country.
Kurdish regional foreign relations minister Falah Mustafa Bakir (C) and other officials look on as US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) is greeted by Fuad Hussein, chief of staff at the presidency of the Kurdistan regional government, at Arbil International Airport on June 24, 2014. Kerry met in Arabil, the capital of northern Iraq's Kurdistan autonomous region, with regional government president Massud Barzani (unseen) as part of a US diplomatic drive aimed at preventing the country from splitting apart i
Kurdish regional foreign relations minister Falah Mustafa Bakir (C) and other officials look on as US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) is greeted by Fuad Hussein, chief of staff at the presidency of the Kurdistan regional government, at Erbil International Airport on June 24, 2014. - (AFP/Getty Images/Brendan Smialowski)
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Julian Pecquet
@JPecquet_ALM

The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq (KRG) has hired some of the best lobbying and PR talent in Washington to convince the United States to start treating it like a sovereign country.

Those efforts have begun to pay out in a big way over the past few weeks as Congress looks set to deliver on some of the KRG's top priorities. These include lifting burdensome terrorism designations and no longer requiring that aid be channeled through Baghdad.

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