Kurds complain about air embargo
Iraqi Kurdish authorities yesterday filed a complaint to the International Civil Aviation Organisation against Baghdad’s air embargo, saying it was blocking aid from getting to displaced people.
An embargo on international flights to and from Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region went into effect on Friday after Erbil rejected a call by Baghdad to surrender control of its international airports to the federal Iraqi government.
It comes amid growing tensions between Erbil and Baghdad after Iraqi Kurds voted in favour of separation from Iraq in last week’s highly controversial referendum. Baghdad has repeatedly said the referendum was illegal.
“The Kurdish region in Iraq has filed a complaint to the ICAO against Baghdad’s air embargo that obstructs the transportation of aid to internally-displaced people in the region,” said Hoshyar Zebari, a former Iraqi deputy prime minister and current member of the Kurdish region’s referendum council.
Iraq’s northern region has been considered a safe haven for civilians fleeing the government’s battle against ISIL extremists.
“The airports are not only for travel and tourism, but also to fulfil humanitarian needs of displaced civilians,” Mr Zebari said, referring to the airports in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah.
The Kurdish parliament held a session on Saturday in which it rejected Baghdad’s embargo, describing it as a move “against the people of the Kurdistan Region” and a “distraction from Iraq’s fight against ISIL”.
Mawlud Bawa Murad, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s transport minister, said: “We will do our best to find a viable alternative, or succeed to bring back international flight.”
Despite the tensions, Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi yesterday said: “To our people in the Kurdistan region: we defend our Kurdish citizens as we defend all Iraqis and will not allow any attack on them. We will share our loaf of bread together.”
His comments came after Iran said on Saturday it would hold a military exercise with Iraq on their shared border in response to the “illegitimate referendum”.
Elsewhere, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to allegations made by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Israel’s Mossad spy agency played a role in the outcome of the Kurdish vote.
Mr Netanyahu denied the claims, saying: “Israel played no part in the Kurdish referendum, aside from the natural, deep and long-standing sympathy the Jewish people have for the Kurdish people and their aspirations.”
Hizbollah meanwhile said the Kurdish vote marked a first step towards partition of the Middle East.