Flights end as Kurds feel pressure Bill for Big Ben work gets bigger
The last international flight left Erbil airport in northern Iraq yesterday as the Baghdad government imposed an air ban on Iraqi Kurdistan in retaliation for an independence vote that has drawn widespread opposition from foreign powers.
Iraq’s Kurds overwhelmingly backed independence in Monday’s referendum, defying neighbouring countries, which fear the vote could lead to renewed conflict in the region.
Foreign airlines have suspended flights to the Kurdish capital, Erbil, and Sulaimaniya in the autonomous region, obeying a notice from the government in Baghdad, which controls Iraqi airspace. Domestic flights are still allowed.
More than 400 Kurdish travel and tourism companies were directly affected by the flight ban and 7000 jobs were at risk in the sector, Erbil-based Rudaw TV said.
The Kurdistan Regional Government, meanwhile, refused to hand over control of its border crossings to the Iraqi government, as demanded by Iraq, Iran and Turkey in retaliation for the independence referendum.
The Iraqi Defence Ministry said it planned to take control of the borders ‘‘in coordination’’ with Iran and Turkey.
After talks in Ankara with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the referendum was illegitimate and Russia and Turkey agreed that the territorial integrity of Iraq had to be preserved.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey would target only those who had decided to hold the referendum, and would not make civilians pay the price for the vote.
Iran banned the transportation of refined crude oil products by Iranian companies to and from Iraqi Kurdistan.
However, a World Bank official said Kurdistan would be able to resist an economic blockade. ‘‘It is self-sufficient in electricity and fuel supply, as it has the oil and gas fields, the refineries and the power stations,’’ the official said. ‘‘It has also the land and the water resources to sustain a basic subsistence, even if borders are shut completely.’’
United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said yesterday that ‘‘the vote and the results lack legitimacy’’ before going on to urge ‘‘calm and an end to vocal recriminations and threats of reciprocal actions’’.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the two sides should remain united in their priority to defeat Islamic State and stabilise Iraq, and that any further escalation should be avoided. A source in Macron’s office said Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi had accepted an invitation to come Paris on October 5 for talks on the issue.
The Iraqi parliament urged the Baghdad government to send troops to take control of oilfields held by Kurdish forces. Baghdad has also told foreign governments to close their diplomatic missions in Erbil. The cost of renovating the London tower that houses Big Ben has more than doubled in 16 months, provoking an angry response from British MPs.
Parliamentary authorities said the estimate for the work on the Elizabeth Tower had risen from an estimated £29 million to £61m (NZ$113m). The additional cost emerged after surveyors discovered that the project was more complex and extensive than originally thought.
It follows a previous row over the renovation for silencing the bongs of Big Ben, the name of the 13-tonne bell inside the tower, for four years.
Caroline Flint, a Labour MP and a member of the public accounts committee parliamentary spending watchdog, said the National Audit Office should launch an inquiry into the project.
Peter Bone, the Conservative MP who campaigned against the four-year silencing of the bells, said the rise in spending was extraordinary.
The House of Commons and House of Lords commissions have been told that the increase in costs follows further examination of stonework around the tower, the complexity of stripping and repainting metalwork within the tower, and further examination of the ground conditions.