Washington has supported Syrian Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State, despite Turkish protests.
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The oil-rich province of Kirkuk is among the contested areas where the vote is planned. Security forces killed a third suicide bomber outside the restaurant.
The referendum will be held September 25 but it appears the vote will already go in favour of independence. Tensions are building fast with mounting concerns that the referendum will lead to a new spiral of violence in Iraq even before the country has finally rid itself of Islamic State. But since the end of the US -led first Gulf War in 1991, they have gained a high degree of autonomy.
Iraqi Kurdistan regional President Masoud Barzani supports the referendum.
In the meantime, Both prime minister Haydar al-Abadi from the government side and Shiite militias say that they will confront Kurdistan directly if it seems to be moving toward independence.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his cabinet will meet Friday to decide whether to impose sanctions on the Kurds over the independence referendum. Rather, it would be the first concrete step in the Kurdish movement toward declaring independence.
“After the Kurdish referendum, Erbil will hold extensive talks with Baghdad and the worldwide community, during which the negotiations of Kurdistan separating from Iraq will be held”, Mr Barzani said.
“We will announce our final thoughts on the issue with the cabinet meeting and national security council decision”, Erdogan said.
The ministry’s statement comes after the Saudi minister for Gulf affairs Thamer Al Sabhan, a former ambassador to Iraq, met Mr Barzani in Erbil last Saturday as part of its mediation effort.
He said Kurds used to have an “independent state” before 2003, but they chose to join the new Iraq hoping that the era of denial was over.
However, the Kremlin-controlled oil company Rosneft announced that it is investing almost $1 billion in gas pipelines in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. Besides Iraq, Kurds, the fourth largest ethnic group in West Asia but without a state, are scattered in various countries, including Turkey, Iran and Syria.
Indeed, the referendum, whose result is widely predicted to be a “yes” vote, could have a potentially destabilizing effect on the already chaotic Middle East region.
The Kurdish response is that an independent and viable Kurdistan would contribute to the stability in the region.
Iraqi forces declared victory over the extremists in Mosul in July and in the western town of Tal Afar the following month. Iran and Syria also worry that the vote will encourage secessionist ideas among their own Kurdish minorities.
And also he added no Barzani will run in the next presidential elections following the referendum.
The Turkish military exercise began in the Silopi-Habur region in the country’s south, close to northern Iraq, the armed forces said.
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Shamkhani said Iran’s stance on the importance of maintaining Iraq’s territorial integrity and unity was “unchangeable”, adding, “Any damage to this strategic principle would lead to the revision of and serious adjustment in the existing cooperation between Iran and Iraq’s Kurdistan region”.
