(1946- )
Bill Clinton was the president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. His continuing support of the no-fly zone over northern Iraq allowed the de facto state of Iraqi Kurdistan to continue to exist and gradually prosper. However, Clinton hesitated to give more support to the Iraqi Kurds because of Turkish concerns that an Iraqi Kurdish state would destabilize the Kurdish situation in Turkey. Clinton also feared that too much support for the Iraqi Kurds might lead to a breakup of Iraq and instability in the geostrategically important Middle East.
Fighting between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in the mid-1990s also created difficulties for Clinton. Thus, Clinton gave only lukewarm support to the Iraqi opposition against Saddam Hussein. Clinton's dual containment policy against Iraq and Iran also proved increasingly difficult to sustain. In general, Clinton supported the Iraqi Kurds much more than the Turkish Kurds because the United States was allied to Turkey but strongly opposed Iraq.
Historical Dictionary of the Kurds. Michael M. Gunter.