The Jerusalem Post: Rick Francona is a retired US Air Force intelligence officer who worked for the NSA, CIA and DIA and later was a military analyst for NBC and CNN. He says that the Iraqi Kurds are the only Kurds who have any hope of maintaining their autonomy, and that nothing good can happen in the region while the Revolutionary Guards run Iran. Francona sees no coherent long-term strategy beyond covert support for Iranian Kurdish groups, and he warns against a sad history of the Kurds leaving on their own. The KRG's existence is written into the Iraqi constitution, giving it a legal framework that other Kurdish regions do not have; The Kurdish-led zone in eastern Syria collapsed in January 2026, the Syrian Democratic Forces disbanded, and in Turkey a successful PKK disbandment means assimilation without autonomy.

The Jerusalem Post: Rick Francona is a retired US Air Force intelligence officer who worked for the NSA, CIA and DIA and later was a military analyst for NBC and CNN. He says that the Iraqi Kurds are the only Kurds who have any hope of maintaining their autonomy, and that nothing good can happen in the region while the Revolutionary Guards run Iran. Francona sees no coherent long-term strategy beyond covert support for Iranian Kurdish groups, and he warns against a sad history of the Kurds leaving on their own. The KRG's existence is written into the Iraqi constitution, giving it a legal framework that other Kurdish regions do not have; The Kurdish-led zone in eastern Syria collapsed in January 2026, the Syrian Democratic Forces disbanded, and in Turkey a successful PKK disbandment means assimilation without autonomy.