Tabnak – While Iraqi Kurds are insisting on their bid to hold an independence referendum soon, domestic and international objections to their goal have been in the rise. After Iran, Turkey and some other regional countries, now even the UN itself is expressing its concerns over the issue.
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday warned against a planned referendum for independence in northern Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), his spokesman said through a statement.
"The Secretary-General believes that any unilateral decision to hold a referendum at this time would detract from the need to defeat ISIL, as well as the much-needed reconstruction of the regained territories and the facilitation of a safe, voluntary and dignified return of the more than three million refugees and internally displaced people," Stephane Dujarric said in a statement, referring to the ISIS/ISIL terrorist group.
"The Secretary-General respects the sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of Iraq and considers that all outstanding issues between the federal Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government should be resolved through structured dialogue and constructive compromise," Dujarric added.
Also on Sunday, Iraqi Vice President Nouri al-Maliki denounced the planned Kurdish independence referendum, warning that Baghdad would not tolerate the establishment of "a second Israel,” after the occupying regime became the only entity to support the so-called plebiscite.
Maliki, who was also Iraq's prime minister from 2006 to 2014, made the remarks in a meeting with US Ambassador to Iraq, Douglas Silliman, in the capital Baghdad on Sunday, adding that the leaders of the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan must "call off the referendum.”
Meanwhile at the regional level, it was announced today that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi this week to discuss their concerns about the independence referendum in Iraq’s Kurdish region.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday before departing for New York to attend the UN General Assembly, Erdogan said Ankara and Baghdad had the same view regarding the referendum.
"We will have a meeting with Mr Abadi in the United States, and from what we can see our goal is the same. Our goal is not dividing Iraq,” said Erdogan, who earlier said that the Kurdish officials’ decision to not postpone the vote was "very wrong”.
All these developments came two days after lawmakers of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), in its capital Erbil, approved the September 25 referendum as opposition legislators boycotted the parliament’s first session in two years.
Sixty-five out of the 68 Kurdish lawmakers present in the 111-seat regional parliament held the secession vote in the face of fierce opposition from the central government in Baghdad, the United Nations and the United States.
Iran, Turkey, the United States and other Western powers have advised authorities in the semi-autonomous region to cancel the vote, worrying that tensions it would generate might act as an unwelcome distraction from the war on ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
