Meeting with leaders of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) today, Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the US is opposed to Kurdish secession from Iraq.

Kerry insisted he believes that Kurdish independence would “accelerate a lot of negative trends” in the region, and in Iraqi politics in particular. KRG President Massoud Barzani has been talking up secession recently, urging Kurds to take the opportunity presented by the ongoing fighting.

Kerry envisions Kurdistan staying the course and somehow “saving” Iraq from ISIS by throwing their weight behind a new US-backed “unity” government. Iraq’s State of Law Party is going to attempt to form a new government at the end of the month.

Whether the Kurds give some nominal political support to a new post-Maliki government or not, the KRG is already one foot out the door, and likely to take the disputed city of Kirkuk, since taken by KRG Peshmerga fighters, along with the rest of Kurdistan.