Iraq’s top court suspends Kurdish referendum

The State Department urged the Kurds to negotiate with Iraq instead of having a vote.

He said: “We hereby call on the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government to abort the initiative they have launched in that direction”.

He emphasized that the legitimacy of Iran’s border crossings with the Iraqi Kurdistan region hinged upon the fact that the Kurdish areas were part of an undivided Iraq, adding that the Islamic Republic would shut all border crossings and terminate military and security agreements if the semi-autonomous region secedes from Iraq.

Iraq’s Kurds have long held a dream of statehood. In addition, some rivers that feed into Iraqi Kurdistan flow through Turkey, giving Ankara the ability to curtail the region’s water supplies.

His efforts to persuade the Iraqi parliament to fire Kirkuk Gov. Najmaldin Karim for backing the poll as well as for calls for parliament to withdraw confidence in Iraqi President Fuad Masum and sack ministers and other senior officials of Kurdish descent could push the Kurds over the edge.

A statement released from the court on Monday says it “issued a national order to suspend the referendum procedures scheduled. until the resolution of the cases regarding the constitutionality of said decision”. Nearly all United Nations member states oppose the referendum in the oil-rich region, including the USA and Iran.

“Kirkuk belongs to Iraq”.

A possible fight might not be contained to Kirkuk.

Under this plan, a well-placed source told AFP, the worldwide community will oversee negotiations on revenue sharing in Iraq’s oil budget and payment for Kurdish militia fighters.

Government spokesman Bekir Bozdag said Tuesday the vote is being driven by a sick mentality and warned it threatened to spark regional chaos.

Two of the province’s oil fields are under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and three are run by Iraq’s North Oil Company (NOC). For instance, the Pentagon recently acknowledged that although coalition troops could be expected to stay in Iraq after the defeat of ISIS, the USA footprint would be smaller and would involve fewer bases.

KRG leader Massoud Barzani, on the other hand, seems determined to go through with the referendum unless he is provided with concrete reassurances on the KRG’s sovereignty rights.

Turkey, Iraq and Iran have united in opposition to the planned Kurdish independence referendum in northern Iraq, warning of coordinated “counter-measures” to the vote. Iran and Turkey fear contagion for their own Kurdish populations. The military drills now being conducted at the Habur border crossing are meant to intimidate northern Iraq, but Turkey does have other options before resorting to any military option, including closing Habur or the Kirkuk-Yumurtalık oil pipeline.