"Israel-Kurdish cooperation a possibility," Israeli expert Ofra Bengio tells The Jerusalem Post.

“The Kurds are quite close to a declaration of independence. The main obstacle for now is the US,” Prof. Ofra Bengio, editor of the forthcoming book Kurdish Awakening: Nation-Building in a Fragmented Homeland told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

“There are three scenarios for such a declaration: When the American administration changes; before [Iraqi Kurdistan] President Masoud Barzani leaves office in less than two years’ time, as he might like to be remembered as the builder of Kurdistan; and finally if relations with Baghdad deteriorate further,” explained Bengio, a senior research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University.

Asked if the Iraqi Kurds would be more likely to declare independence if their efforts to export oil independently via Turkey become constant and sustainable, Bengio responded that “the main obstacle for separation is the economic dependence of Erbil [the region’s capital] on Baghdad. If Erbil manages to export oil and gas independently of Baghdad it will make such a move much more plausible.”

The Iraqi Oil Ministry said last month that it was taking legal action against Ankara and state-owned pipeline operator BOTAS for facilitating the first sale of crude to be piped from Kurdistan without Baghdad’s consent.

The move raised the stakes again in a long-running game of political brinkmanship, with ramifications for Iraq’s territorial integrity, as Kurdistan seeks greater self-sufficiency.