Avi Dichter, the Israeli Internal Security Minister, said (May 26, 2010. See source below) in a lecture at the ‘Israeli National Security Research Center’ “about the Israeli role in destroying Iraq after it was occupied in 2003 “we achieved in Iraq more than we expected and plan!” Dichter confirmed that keeping Iraq weak and isolated is an Israeli national interest.

“Weakening and isolating Iraq is no less important than weakening and isolating Egypt,”  he said. Weakening and isolating Egypt done by diplomatic methods while everything is done to do achieve a complete and comprehensive isolation to Iraq”, Dachter added.

“Iraq has vanished as a military force and as a united country. Our strategic option is to keep it divided,” he added.

“Our strategic goal is not to allow this country (Iraq) to take its regional and Arabic role back. Iraq must stay divided and isolated from its regional environment” he said.
About the role of the Kurdish parties in facilitating occupying Iraq Dichter said “the top goal for Israel is to support and provide the Kurds with weapons and training and to make them our partners in security in order to establish a Kurdish independent state in the northern part of Iraq where it can control Kirkuk’s and Kurdistan’s oil,” he added.

“The Kurdish leadership guaranteed to put the oil pipeline from Kirkuk to IBC line through Jordan. We did primary negotiations with Jordan and we reached an agreement with the Kurdish leadership in this regard. If Jordan withdrew his promises we have the substitute: Turkey. We finished putting the plans and studies to establish pipelines for water and oil with Turkey and from Turkey into Israel,” he added.

The full transcript of the lecture is below:
Nobody can ignore what we had achieved on this field (Iraq). What was achieved was beyond what we had planned. We have to recall back our primary goals in Iraq since we started interfering  in it at the beginning of the seventies of the last century. Our top goal was supporting the Kurds getting benefit from their feeling that they are persecuted ethnicity who have the right to self determination and to enjoy freedom as all other peoples.

 At first our colleagues in Israel- who planned for (destroying) Iraq as uri Librani the previous advisor of the ex-prime minister and our ambassador to Turkey and Ethiopia and Iran- defined the core plan for the Israelis to support the Kurds. Our (Israeli) support to the Kurds was humble at the beginning. It was limited to a political support, mentioning the Kurds issue in the international meetings and conferences. We provided the Kurds also with money, but this was limited.

In 1972 this support had taken a security dimensions: providing the Kurds with weapons through Turkey and Iran and receiving  Kurdish groups and gorillas for training in Israel and in Turkey and Iran.

After the Kurdish “resistance” fall apart as a result of the agreement with Iran, the Kurdish leadership went to Turkey, Syria and Israel. Israel for morale reasons had to stay beside the Kurds and support them till they got their national aim in achieving the self-rule in the first stage and the full state independent later on.

I won’t talk long but I have to say that now in Iraq there’s an independent Kurdish state. This state has people, land, authority, army, economic, oil. This state aims not to limit itself to Kurdistan only but to annex the northern of Iraq also; Kirkuk first, then al-Musel and may be SalahEddin city in addition to Jlolaa and Khankin.

The Kurds cant’ imagine what had achieved thanks to our support.

Iraq which was in our strategic view the most dangerous challenge after it became a very huge military force. Suddenly Iraq falls apart as a military force and as a country! Iraq, the country which was united, suddenly became divided geographically, and its people is divided, it has now a civil war which led to the death of hundreds of thousands of the Iraqis!
 If we watch Iraq since 2003 we would find ourselves in front of more than one perspective:
Iraq is now divided into three areas in spite of the existence of the central government.

Israel: We Destroyed Iraq.. Iraq must Stay Divided and Isolated… The Oil of Northern Iraq will Flow into Israel!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Jouhaina News