Arab League calls for comprehensive dialogue Barzani urges Baghdad to open door to talks
BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi on Tuesday gave authorities in Kurdistan 72 hours to give the central government control of airports, a day after the autonomous region voted on independence.
Speaking at a news conference, Al-Abadi said his government would ban “international flights to and from Kurdistan” in three days unless the airports are put in its control.
The Iraqi Kurdish leadership billed Monday’s vote as an exercise in self-determination, but the Iraqi government is strongly opposed to any redrawing of its borders, and Turkey and Iran fear the move will embolden their own Kurdish populations.
Al-Abadi’s ultimatum came the day after the vote and ahead of the release of official results. He said the ban would exclude humanitarian and other “urgent” flights.
Regional authorities in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish north put the turnout at over 70 percent, but many voters reported irregularities, including cases of individuals voting multiple times and without proper registration.
Many expect a resounding “yes” vote when the official results are released, most likely on Wednesday, according to the Kurdish electoral commission.
Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani urged Al-Abadi to begin talks on the issues dividing them.
“I call on Mr.Haider Al-Abadi and the others (Iraqi political officials) not to close the door to dialogue because it is dialogue that will solve problems,” he said in a televised address.
“We assure the international community of our willingness to engage in dialogue with Baghdad,” he said. “The referendum is not to delimit the border (between Kurdistan and Iraq), nor to impose it de facto,” Barzani added.
For decades, Kurdish politics have hinged on dreams of an independent Kurdish state. When colonial powers drew the map of the Middle East after World War I, the Kurds, who now number around 30 million, were divided among Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq.
The vote has already ramped up regional tensions.
Fearing the vote could be used to redraw Iraq’s borders, taking a sizeable part of the country’s oil wealth with it, Al-Abadi has called the referendum an act of “sedition” that “escalated the ethnic and sectarian tension” across the country.
In Iran, thousands of Kurds poured into the streets in the cities of Baneh, Saghez and Sanandaj on Monday night. Footage shared online by Iranian Kurds showed demonstrators waving lit mobile phones in the air and chanting their support into the night. Some footage also showed Iranian police officers assembling nearby or watching the demonstrators.
Iranian state television on Tuesday acknowledged the rallies.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and its regular army have been running military exercises near the border with Iraq’s Kurdish region in a sign of Tehran’s displeasure at the Kurdish referendum.
The US and UN both opposed the referendum, describing it as a unilateral and potentially destabilizing move that could detract from the war Iraqi and Kurdish forces are waging against Daesh.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the US would not alter its “historic relationship” with Iraq’s Kurds, but the referendum would increase hardships for them. She said Daesh and other extremists are hoping to “exploit instability and discord.”
Statements from UN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres expressed regret that the vote was held and said issues between Iraq’s federal government and Kurdish region should be resolved through dialogue.
Kurdish electoral commission spokesman Sherwan Zerar put the turnout at about 3.3 million of the eligible 4.5 million residents.
The Arab League called on Iraqis to renounce their differences and open comprehensive dialogue to avoid clashes following the controversial referendum.
Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, chief of the Cairo-based pan-Arab organization, said in a statement: “It is still possible to contain the repercussions of this step if all concerned parties exercise wisdom and responsibility and conduct themselves inside the parameters of the Iraqi state.”
The interests of Iraq, he added, “will be best served in the framework of a unified, federal and democratic Iraq.”
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry expressed concern over the possible “negative” consequence of the referendum.