Iraqi Kurds reject US request to postpone referendum
Iraq’s Kurds will hold an independence referendum next month despite a US request to postpone it, a high-ranking Kurdish official said yesterday.
The US and other western nations are worried that the vote could reignite conflict with Baghdad.
Turkey, Iran and Syria, which together with Iraq have large Kurdish populations, oppose an independent Kurdistan.
“The date is standing – September 25, no change,” said Hoshyar Zebari, an adviser to president Masoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Regional Government.
The US secretary of state Rex Tillerson asked Mr Barzani to postpone the referendum on Thursday, Mr Zebari said.
On Friday, the Kurdish presidency said that “the people of the Kurdistan Region would expect guarantees and alternatives for their future” in case the referendum was delayed.
The US state department said in June that it was concerned that the referendum would distract from “more urgent priorities” such as the defeat of ISIL.
The extremist group’s “caliphate” collapsed last month when US-backed Iraqi forces completed the takeover of Mosul, its main city in Iraq, after a nine-month campaign in which Kurdish Peshmerga fighters took part. The militants retain control of territory in western Iraq and eastern Syria.
The US has pledged to maintain its backing to allied forces until ISIL’s total defeat.
The Kurds have been seeking an independent state since at least the end of the First World War, when colonial powers divided up the Middle East, but their territory was split between modern-day Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.
Mr Barzani, whose father led struggles against Baghdad in the 1960s and 1970s, said in July that the Kurds would take responsibility for the anticipated “yes” outcome of the referendum and pursue its implementation in talks with Baghdad and other powers.
“We have to rectify the history of mistreatment of our people, and those who are saying that independence is not good, our question to them is: ‘if it’s not good for us, why is it good for you?’” he said.
Kurdish officials say disputed areas, including the oil-rich Kirkuk region, will be covered by the referendum, to determine whether they would want to remain in Kurdistan.
The Peshmerga in 2014 prevented ISIL from capturing Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, after the Iraqi army fled. Peshmerga are running the region, which is claimed by Turkmen and Arabs.
Iran-backed Iraqi Shiite militias have threatened to expel the Kurds by force from this region and three other disputed areas – Sinjar, Makhmour and Khanaqin.