IRAQI KURDS SET FOR VOTE ON INDEPENDENCE

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Never going back to Baghdad: Barzani

Iran halts flights, holds war games … Iraq vows ‘necessary measures’

Iraqi Kurdish president Masoud Barzani speaks during a news conference in Erbil, Iraq September 24, 2017. REUTERS

ERBIL, Iraq, Sept 24, (Agencies): Iraq’s Kurds will go ahead with a referendum on independence on Monday, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani told a news conference. Iraq’s Kurds will seek talks with the Shi’ite-led central government to implement the expected ‘yes’ outcome of the referendum, even if they take two years or more, he said. “We will never go back to the failed partnership” with Baghdad, he said, adding Iraq has become a “theocratic, sectarian state” and not the democratic one that was supposed to be built after the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Barzani dismissed the concern of Iraq’s powerful neighbours, Iran and Turkey that the vote could destabilize the region, committing to respecting the laws on international boundaries” and not seek to redraw region’s borders.

“Only independence can reward the mothers of our martyrs,” he said, reminding the international community of the role played by the Kurds in the war on Islamic State. “Only through independence we can secure our future.” Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard launched a military exercise Sunday in its northwestern Kurdish region just ahead of Iraqi Kurds voting in an independence referendum, in a sign of Tehran’s concerns over the vote. Iran also closed its airspace Sunday to fl ights taking off from Iraq’s Kurdish region following an Iraqi request, “due to the ineffectiveness of our political efforts and the insistence of Kurdistan authorities to hold a referendum.”

The Guard, a paramilitary force answerable only to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on its website that airborne and missile units would take part in the exercise. State television aired footage of explosions and smoke rising as part of the drill, in the mountains of Iran’s own Kurdish region. “We are holding a drill here,” Gen Mohammad Pakpour, the commander of the Guard’s ground forces, said in the footage. “God willing, artillery, armored (divisions), drones and commandos will hold a wellcoordinated exercise.” Turkey, which is also home to a large Kurdish minority and opposes the vote, is holding military drills near its own border with Iraq.

Flights halted
Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency reported that the Supreme National Security Council closed Iranian airspace to the Iraqi Kurdish area at the request of the central government in Baghdad. Iran and Iraq have been close allies since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. Both are opposed to Kurdish independence, and Baghdad has said the referendum is unconstitutional. Also semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported Sunday that Iran’s Army Ground Forces is running a military exercise in western near the Iraqi border since this morning. In a rare moment of agreement, Saudi Arabia has come out on the same side as its arch regional rival, Iran. It has publicly called for the vote not to move forward, citing current regional conditions and the potential for the vote to ignite a new crisis. The 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Sunday also voiced its “deep concern” over the planned referendum, saying it runs against the constitution of Iraq and could have a negative impact on Iraq’s ability to fight terrorism.

‘Necessary measures’
Iraq’s prime minister, meanwhile, pledged to take all the “necessary measures” to protect the country’s unity a day before its autonomous Kurdish region votes in a referendum on independence. Haider al-Abadi spoke out in a televised address shortly after Massud Barzani said the Kurds’ partnership with Baghdad had failed, and that the plebiscite would proceed as planned on Monday. Abadi said that taking a unilateral decision to stage a referendum affected both Iraqi and regional security, and was “unconstitutional and against civil peace”.

“We will take the necessary measures to preserve the unity of the country,” he said but without elaborating. He added that “we will not permit anyone to play with Iraq and not pay the consequences”. Washington and many Western countries had called for the vote to be postponed or cancelled, saying it would hamper the fight against the Islamic State group. But in regional capital Arbil, Barzani’s political heartland, Kurdish fl ags were fl ying everywhere on Sunday. Most in the city said they would vote, but some also feared the possible consequences. “We look forward to hearing what the situation will be after Sept 25, as most Kurds will vote for independence to fulfil our dream of an independent state,” said labourer Ahmad Souleiman, 30. “What we’re afraid of is that our enemies have evil intentions towards us.”

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim again denounced the referendum on Sunday, saying it would “further fuel existing instability, lack of authority and chaos in the region”. Some five million Kurds are expected to vote in the three provinces that have since 2003 formed the autonomous region of Kurdistan but also in territories disputed with Baghdad such as the oil-rich province of Kirkuk. While an independent homeland has long been an aspiration in the Kurdish diaspora, the ethnic group’s two main parties in Iraq differ on how to make it a reality. Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of Jalal Talabani, a former president of Iraq, are at opposite ends of the spectrum politically on the issue.

The PUK has backed an alternative plan put forward by the United Nations, and supported by Washington, for immediate negotiations on future relations in exchange for dropping the referendum. In Sulaymaniyah, the PUK-controlled second city of the autonomous Kurdish region, enthusiasm for the vote was muted. “I will vote ‘no’ tomorrow because I’m afraid of an embargo on the region, of civil war with the Hashed al-Shaabi (grouping of Shiite paramilitaries), and waking up and seeing Turkish soldiers patrolling,” said 30-year-old teacher Kamiran Anwar. The most sensitive sticking point is Kirkuk where there was a run on food supplies in the city Saturday as residents stocked up in case of postreferendum trouble. Home to Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens, Kirkuk is disputed between the federal government and Iraq’s Kurds who say it is historically theirs. They argue that the late dictator Saddam Hussein chased them out and replaced them with Arabs. Threats are growing inside Iraq against the Kurdish move. “There will be a high price to pay by those who organised this referendum, a provocation aimed at destroying relations between Arabs and Kurds,” said Hashed al-Shaabi leader Faleh al-Fayad. “As soon as the referendum takes place there will be a legal and constitutional reaction.” The Hashed grouping of paramilitary units was created in 2014 to battle IS. Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards began military exercises Sunday along the border with Iraqi Kurdistan. Such exercises are common in the region, because of the persistent threat posed by Kurdish separatists who regularly carry out cross-border attacks against Iranian security forces.

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