Kurdish leader Barzani decides to step down

Independence referendum triggered new crisis

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq — Iraqi Kurdistan’s veteran leader Masoud Barzani will not extend his presidential term beyond Nov. 1, a Kurdish government official said Saturday.

His decision came just weeks after a referendum on Kurdish independence backfired and triggered a crisis for Iraq’s Kurds, who had been enjoying a period of unprecedented autonomy.

A plan to divide the president’s powers was outlined in a letter Barzani sent to the Kurdish parliament Saturday, the official told Reuters. The plan asks parliament to distribute the president’s powers among the government, parliament and judiciary.

Barzani’s current term was set to expire in four days, the same date that presidential and parliamentary elections were due to be held. Those elections were delayed indefinitely last week amidst an escalating regional crisis.

Critics say the Sept. 25 independence referendum, orchestrated and championed by the 71-year-old Barzani, has left a bleak outlook for Iraq’s Kurds.

Less than four weeks after Kurds in the region voted overwhelmingly to break away from Iraq, the central government launched a military offensive to wrest back the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which the Kurds regard as both their spiritual homeland and a key source of revenue for their wouldbe independent state. It was one of several retaliatory measures taken by Baghdad, which vehemently opposed the referendum.

In days the Iraqi government has transformed the balance of power in the north of the country, exerting pressure on Barzani to step aside and wrecking decades-old dreams of Kurdish independence. Iraqi forces have continued to advance on all Kurdish-held territory outside the autonomous region’s borders.