Ali Akbar Velayati, a top advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday told Tehran Times that the US and the “Zionist regime of Israel” were behind Kurdish President Masoud Barzani’s decision to hold a referendum on declaring independence for his country—a region of the State of Iraq.

Velayati warned that Kurdish independence would introduce “political chaos” in the Middle East, and predicted that “the Kurds will definitely topple Barzani before the Iraqi government would do so.”

The vast majority of Iraqi Kurds voted in favor of independence. After counting 3,440,616 legitimate votes, 91.83% answered Yes to the question, “Do you want the Kurdistan Region and the Kurdistani areas outside the administration of the Region to become an independent state?” Only 8.17% said No.

Velayati called the referendum’s results “insubstantial” and with no “positive result,” mostly because “Iran will not accept the partition of Iraq.”

Thanks to President GW Bush’s toppling of Sunni Sadam Huseein’s government in 2003, a Shiite government with strong ties with Shiite Iran has taken over the country.

Spaeker of the Majlis parliament Ali Larijani also said that Iran “will not accept” the partition of Iraq and said Tehran will stand beside the Iraqi central government.

He also said that disintegration of regional countries is an “Israeli policy” and would not meet the interests of any ethnic group.

Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami also said Iran is against any move to disintegrate regional countries and change their geographical borders. During a meeting with Turkish Ambassador to Tehran Riza Hakan Tekin, Hatami said it is Iran’s principled policy to respect national sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries.

Mohammadi Golpayegani, the chief of staff of the Supreme Leader’s office, also said that the independence referendum in the Iraqi Kurdistan is a “Zionist plot” intended to foment new crisis after the end of the ISIS era in Iraq.

“You may be assured that it is a plot by the Zionist regime now that ISIS is collapsing,” Mohammadi stated. “Now they have raised a new issue in the region.” He warned that “referendum and its related issues will cause many problems for the Kurds and the neighboring countries.”

Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri blamed the “Zionist regime” for orchestrating the independence referendum in the Iraqi Kurdistan. “The Zionist regime of Israel and the global arrogance are behind the referendum,” he said.</s>The High Elections and Referendum Commission said on Wednesday that more than 92.73 percent of voters supported the idea of Iraqi Kurdistan's independence from Baghdad.

The voter turnout was 72 percent, with 3.35 million people taking part in the referendum, according to official data. Some 2.8 million people voted for independence, while only 224,000, — or 7.2 percent — voted against it.

The chairman of the election commission stated that the results of the referendum are legitimate and no violations were registered during the vote.

"We carried out our work in all parts of Kurdistan. The process was very successful. Many international observers participated. The referendum was held without violations," the commission's spokesman said at a press conference.

Baghdad also decided to ban flights to and from the airports of the autonomous region starting on Friday.

Iraqi Kurdistan made the decision to hold the independence referendum in June. Following the announcement, the Iraqi government, as well as a number of foreign countries, including Turkey and the United States, have criticized the move.</s>In the end, the Kurdish people and politicians united around the independence referendum. But what happens next? Some senior politicians believe negotiations with Baghdad will begin again.

Voting on independence in Kirkuk, an area that is run by Kurdish security but not part of Iraqi Kurdistan. (photo: Yadgar Jalal)

While many uncertainties remain about Iraqi Kurdistan’s referendum on independence, there is one thing that seems clear to the people on the streets: On the day, the semi-autonomous region felt united in a way that it has not been for a long time.

Part of the reason Iraqi Kurdistan has remained an oasis of relative calm and security, while the rest of Iraq fell apart during the recent security crisis caused by the extremist group known as the Islamic State and earlier, is that the Kurdish people have always considered their ethnicity more important than the religious sect they belong to. Ethnicity has trumped religion in their case and, despite infighting, has tended to unite locals in this area, with the long-term goal being to form their own nation.

In many other situations recently, the Kurdish have been divided – often between the two zones that basically make up the semi-autonomous northern region, which are run by the two major political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, or KDP, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK.

Up until the very last minute some of the region’s political parties remained opposed to the referendum. The KDP, the PUK and the Kurdistan Islamic Union had supported the referendum while the Change movement, also known as Goran, and the Islamic Group of Kurdistan wanted it postponed.

Just one day before the referendum though, when it became clear it was going ahead, the Islamic Group of Kurdistan relented and senior members said they would be voting “yes” in the poll.

Even the Change movement, a long-time opposition group in the region that formed on an anti-corruption platform, told members to follow their own consciences. Then the movement also told members they should vote, and that they should vote “yes”. The Change movement had previously been very opposed to the referendum. On the morning of the referendum, Omar Sayed Ali, the general coordinator of the Change movement, confirmed his participation and said that he would be voting “yes” too.

“We expect a better and more positive internal situation when it comes to relations between the political parties in Kurdistan after the referendum,” Mohammed Elkhani, a Turkmen member of the High Council on the Referendum, tasked with negotiating with Baghdad on the subject. “It brought the different political parties together for a common cause.”

The population of Iraqi Kurdistan also appear united on the issue. The most recent count indicates that around 92 percent of locals voted for independence; that’s around 3.3 million people. On local social media, even those who had argued against holding the referendum now posted smiling pictures of themselves voting “yes”.

However, celebrations may prove short lived. Almost immediately the Iraqi government presented the Iraqi Kurds with a post-referendum list of demands, saying they needed to give up control of their border posts, including airports, as well as oil exports. They also demanded that the results of the referendum be annulled and said they would not recognize said results, although as some pundits have pointed out, the referendum was always non-binding.

As Abdullah al-Zaidi, a representative of the ruling Shiite Muslim political alliance that runs the country, told NIQASH, the Kurds should have been expecting that kind of reaction.

“We will not negotiate on the basis of the Kurdish independence referendum and we informed the Kurds of this position before the referendum was held,” says al-Zaidi, who is responsible for the Kurdish portfolio in Baghdad. “We also told the Kurdish delegation that negotiations before the referendum would be different from negotiations after the referendum.”

Asked what would bring all parties to the table, al-Zaidi told NIQASH that Iraqi Kurdistan needed to “annul the referendum results and the consequences, or face internal isolation”.

There have also been threats of external isolation from neighbouring countries upset by the referendum, such as Turkey and Iran.

“We consider that any kind of collective punishment by these countries against the Kurdish region to be illegitimate,” Safeen Dizayee, the spokesperson for the Iraqi Kurdish government, told NIQASH. “We hope these threats do not become reality.”

In fact, Dizayee believes that shared economic, security and political interests will prevent Iraqi Kurdistan from being isolated by international allies and enemies alike. However, he concedes that the region’s relationships with Iran and Turkey are going to be more complicated from now on, and that certainly they will be different than before the referendum.

Other politicians in Iraqi Kurdistan have different concerns. A senior member of the Change movement, Samal Abdullah, says that his party is now engaged in discussions about the future of Iraqi Kurdistan after the referendum.

They have not forgotten their misgivings about the process either, he added; the Change movement have long said that the current president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, the prime mover behind the referendum, is holding the position illegally.

“Our views on the region’s law, government reforms and the legal situation regarding the presidency have not changed,” Abdullah told NIQASH. But as has often been the case in the past in parliament in Baghdad, the Kurdish cause overrides all other considerations and the Kurds will be sticking together in the face of foreign aggressors.

“Internal conflicts and the patriotic, national cause are separate issues. But we will stand together, when It comes to any threats against the Kurdish region,” Abdullah added.

For now, it seems the Kurdish are willing to wait and see, even as foreign governments and the Iraqi government continue to make threatening noises.

“During the coming days, there will be new issues arising and we will get a better idea of the full picture,” the Assyrian and Chaldean envoy to the High Council on the Referendum, Romeo Hakari, told NIQASH. “We will wait for this threatening language to calm down; all indications suggest to us that negotiations can begin again.”

Of course, negotiations will be different now that the referendum has been held, Hakari says, but it is important to remember we are not declaring independence.

As yet, Hakari was uncertain as to whether the referendum would even be discussed in Baghdad again or whether the region would simply start to try and work its way toward independence.

“In the beginning, we are going to negotiate with Baghdad about the referendum results and about the various problems we have between us,” Hakari posits. “But if we run into problems, we will do as the old Arab proverb says: There is a hadith [Islamic prayer or religious verse] for every occasion.”</s>Arbil: Iraq's Kurds announced a massive "yes" vote for independence on Wednesday following a referendum that has incensed Baghdad and sparked international concern.

Official results showed 92.73 percent of voters backing statehood in Monday`s non-binding referendum, which Iraq`s central government rejected as illegal. Turnout was put at 72.61 percent.

Longtime Iraqi Kurd leader Massud Barzani said the vote would not lead to an immediate declaration of independence and should instead open the door to negotiations.

But Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told lawmakers on Wednesday there was no question of using its results as the basis for talks.

"The referendum must be annulled and dialogue initiated in the framework of the constitution. We will never hold talks based on the results of the referendum," Abadi said.

"We will impose Iraqi law in the entire region of Kurdistan under the constitution," he said.

Pressure has been mounting on the Kurds since the vote, not just from Baghdad but also from Ankara, with Turkey threatening a range of measures including cutting off key export routes for the region.

An overwhelming "yes" vote had been widely expected from the electorate of 4.58 million.

Pursuing a long-cherished dream of statehood, the Kurds went ahead with the referendum in defiance of widespread objections, including from the United Nations and United States.

It has raised fears of unrest and the possibility of a military confrontation involving the Kurds, who are key allies in internationally backed offensives against the jihadists of the Islamic State group.

 In a televised address late on Tuesday, Barzani had urged Abadi "not to close the door to dialogue because it is dialogue that will solve problems".

"We assure the international community of our willingness to engage in dialogue with Baghdad," he said, insisting the referendum was not meant "to delimit the border (between Kurdistan and Iraq), nor to impose it de facto."Baghdad has steadily pushed back against the vote.

Lawmakers on Wednesday passed a resolution calling on Abadi to "take all necessary measures to maintain Iraq`s unity" including by deploying security forces to disputed areas.

The resolution also called for the closure of border posts with Turkey and Iran that are outside central government control.

Abadi said Tuesday he would ban all international flights to and from Kurdistan in three days unless airports in its main cities Arbil and Sulaimaniyah were placed under his government`s control.

Airlines from Turkey as well as Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon said Wednesday they will halt flights to and from Iraqi Kurdistan this week until further notice at the request of Baghdad.

Turkey fears the vote will stoke the separatist ambitions of its own sizeable Kurdish minority and on Tuesday President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Iraq`s Kurds risked sparking an "ethnic war".

"If Barzani and the Kurdistan Regional Government do not go back on this mistake as soon as possible, they will go down in history with the shame of having dragged the region into an ethnic and sectarian war," he said.

Erdogan had earlier warned that Turkey would shut its border with Iraqi Kurdistan and threatened to block oil exports from the region through his country.

Erdogan even suggested the possibility of a cross-border incursion similar to the one Turkey carried out against IS and Kurdish fighters in Syria.

Monday`s vote took place across the three northern provinces of autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan -- Arbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dohuk -- and in disputed border zones such as the oil-rich province of Kirkuk.

Opponents have accused Barzani of seeking to empower himself through the vote, and said he should have accepted a UN-backed plan to postpone the referendum in favour of negotiations with Baghdad.

Iran, which also has a large Kurdish minority, condemned the vote as well and on Sunday stopped all flights from its territory to and from Iraqi Kurdistan.

Analysts say that despite their threats, Baghdad, Ankara and Tehran are proceeding cautiously in reacting to the vote, wary of sparking a serious confrontation with the Kurds that would further destabilise an already volatile region.

Closing their borders with Iraqi Kurdistan would also hurt Turkey, which exports more than $8 billion worth of goods every year to the region, and Iran, which exports about $6 billion.

Left without a state of their own when the borders of the Middle East were redrawn after World War I, the Kurds see themselves as the world`s largest stateless people.

The non-Arab ethnic group of between 25 and 35 million is spread across Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria.</s>It seems almost inevitable Iraqi Kurdistan will separate from the rest of Iraq – but going it alone will be hugely difficult.

After much anticipation and under threat of retaliation, the people of Iraqi Kurdistan turned out in high numbers to return what appears to be an overwhelming vote in favour of independence from Iraq. Advocates for independence covered a broad spectrum, from those using the vote as a way to negotiate a better future within Iraq to those demanding a new sovereign state.

Although it was never quite clear what the September 25 referendum was intended to achieve, one thing’s for sure: while the Iraqi government, neighbouring states, regional powers and the international community were all against it from the off, the people of Iraqi Kurdistan have voted on self-determination and given a very clear mandate for independence.

It only takes a short stay in Iraqi Kurdistan to conclude that a separation from the rest of Iraq seems inevitable, thanks to both the long-held Kurdish desire for a homeland and the different trajectories that Iraqi Kurdistan and Iraq have followed now for more than a quarter of a century.

Barring diplomatic, economic, or even military action by Iraq or other states, the next step envisioned by Kurdistan’s president, Masoud Barzani, is to enter into negotiations with the Iraqi federal government over Kurdistan’s future status. Since the federal government would have to relinquish its sovereign claim over Kurdistan in order for it to become a state, Kurdistan’s path to independence travels through, and is dependent upon, Baghdad.

But just because separation is inevitable doesn’t mean achieving it will be easy. An independent Kurdistan will present problems for other states with secessionist movements and will immediately confront severe challenges of its own.

The most pressing problem that an independent Kurdistan would face is how to fund itself. Much of Kurdistan’s domestic economy is dependent on Turkey, which has threatened to cut off the flow of goods and stop exporting oil because of the referendum. Iraqi Kurdistan also currently receives approximately 13-17% of the national Iraqi budget. This funding has been a source of continued dispute, but is vital to Kurdistan maintaining its government and services. Advocates for independence make much of the potential financial windfall from oil production, but with oil prices low and political turmoil running high, the Kurdistan market is less and less attractive for international investors.

In fact, since 2014, Kurdistan has been struggling with a long-term financial crisis. The costs of war with the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), an influx of refugees and a decline in oil revenues have combined to undermine the government’s budget. Since 2015 government salaries have gone unpaid or been cut. These would be onerous problems indeed for a new independent state to confront.

This year’s referendum was a vote for the people of Iraqi Kurdistan as well as four Kurdish controlled regions within Iraq: Kirkuk, Makhmour, Sinjar and Khanaqin. Although these regions are currently controlled from Erbil, they are also claimed by Baghdad.

The perilous state of finances in Kurdistan mean Kirkuk in particular is vital. A multi-ethnic city, Kirkuk sits next to one of the largest oil fields in Iraq, and contestation over who it belongs to has long been a concern. Kurdistan has controlled it since 2014, but the decline of the ISIS threat in Iraq would allow Baghdad to commit military resources to reclaiming the city and its oil fields.

One issue that any negotiation between Baghdad and Erbil would have to resolve is the status of these oil resources. A peaceful resolution to this land and resource dispute would do much to allow Kurdistan to split from Iraq in an amicable fashion. But looking at a map of north and central Iraq, Kirkuk is only one of many potential flashpoints in the disputed territories that ring the borders of Kurdistan from Mosul to Tuz Khurmatu.

Even among Iraqi Kurds, the referendum in Kurdistan was not universally supported. Some parties argued that the timing of the referendum was wrong; others raised concerns that Barzani was using the referendum to safeguard his own political future. It was not clear until the day of the referendum whether the polls would open in Kirkuk or not.

Further, Kurdistan is not just populated by Kurds – and many (including Iran and Turkey) are concerned for the status and future of Arabs, Turkmen and other minority groups. Incorporating non-Kurds into a territory so closely associated with Kurdish identity and longstanding calls of Kurdish nationalism will be an obstacle that a Kurdistan outside of Iraq will have to address if it wishes to remain stable.

Beyond that, though, the heightened sense of Kurdish nationalism amongst the Kurds themselves may have been necessary for mobilisation of society behind a yes vote, but it will also have to be carefully navigated by the Kurdistan government. In the run-up to the referendum, Barzani made clear and strong statements that Kurdistan would not stay within Iraq and that it would not be controlled by outside powers. But what happens if the promises of independent statehood cannot be realised?

The negotiations between Erbil and Baghdad carry no guarantees. If they want to avoid crisis, Barzani and his fellow leaders will need to engage in long-term and very careful politics with both Baghdad and Kurdistan’s population – if they’re mobilised and marched to the top of the hill, it could be dangerous to try to march them back down.

As things stand, all involved must confront two difficult facts. First, it is not easy or straightforward to become a new sovereign state and, second, any resolution to the question of Iraqi Kurdistan is still a long way off. The independence referendum has presented an optimistic future, but there are plenty of obstacles in the way.

Rebecca Richards is lecturer in international relations at Keele University and Robert Smith is lecturer in international relations at Coventry University.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

What to read next:</s>The results of the Iraqi Kurdistan referendum on secession are in, with over 92% of the voters in favor of seceding from Iraq. Iraq’s Prime Minister Hayder Abadi has threatened military action in retaliation.

In fact, Abadi is now demanding that the Kurds totally cancel the vote, even though it’s already taken place and the results are already in, saying he will “never discuss” the results of the referendum because Iraq’s parliament didn’t give them permission for it.

Iraqi officials seem to be throwing everything at the situation in Kurdistan now and seeing what sticks. Demands for the Kurds to surrender their airports have been spurned, and Kurdish officials had ruled out returning to Baghdad’s rule before Abadi’s latest demands were even made.

Abadi’s threats are getting increasingly bellicose, however, ruling out any negotiation and vowing to “impose Iraq’s rule” in all parts of Kurdistan, amid reports both Iran and Turkey are negotiating to get involved in an anti-Kurdish war.

Both Turkey and Iran have Kurdish minorities, and both fear having their own secessionist movements as a spillover from this vote. At the same time, a general war against Kurds seems likely to exacerbate tensions internally for all nations involved.

Where the US is going to end up remains anyone’s guess, as the Trump Administration has come out against Kurdish secession, but their long history of supporting the Iraqi Kurds likely precludes endorsing a regional war against them to prevent their self-determination.
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• US Promises to Deploy 'Strategic' Military Assets Near Korean Peninsula - September 27th, 2017</s>VOLTAIRE NET – Israëli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised Massoud Barzani to transfer 200,000 Israëlis to the new state to « help » with its administration. According to this logic, the ideal for Tsahal would be to extend the territory of Iraqi Kurdistan not only to Kirkuk, but to Northern Syria. This is the purpose of the YPG and its « Rojava ». This self-proclaimed autonomous state is a long corridor which links Iraqi Kurdistan to the Mediterranean, and is occupied by US troops who are illegally installed in several military bases. CONTINUE READING

This entry was posted on 09/27/2017, 9:34 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.</s>Iraq's Kurds announced a massive "yes" vote for independence on Wednesday following a referendum that has incensed Baghdad and sparked international concern.

Official results showed 92.73 percent of voters backing statehood in Monday's non-binding referendum, which Iraq's central government rejected as illegal. Turnout was put at 72.61 percent.

Longtime Iraqi Kurd leader Massud Barzani said the vote would not lead to an immediate declaration of independence and should instead open the door to negotiations.

But Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told lawmakers on Wednesday there was no question of using its results as the basis for talks.

"The referendum must be annulled and dialogue initiated in the framework of the constitution. We will never hold talks based on the results of the referendum," Abadi said.

"We will impose Iraqi law in the entire region of Kurdistan under the constitution," he said.

Pressure has been mounting on the Kurds since the vote, not just from Baghdad but also from Ankara, with Turkey threatening a range of measures including cutting off key export routes for the region.

An overwhelming "yes" vote had been widely expected.

Pursuing a long-cherished dream of statehood, the Kurds went ahead with the referendum in defiance of widespread objections, including from the United Nations and United States.

It has raised fears of unrest and the possibility of a military confrontation involving the Kurds, who are key allies in internationally backed offensives against the jihadists of the Islamic State group.

In a televised address late on Tuesday, Barzani had urged Abadi "not to close the door to dialogue because it is dialogue that will solve problems."

"We assure the international community of our willingness to engage in dialogue with Baghdad," he said, insisting the referendum was not meant "to delimit the border (between Kurdistan and Iraq), nor to impose it de facto."

Baghdad has steadily pushed back against the vote.

Lawmakers on Wednesday passed a resolution calling on Abadi to "take all necessary measures to maintain Iraq's unity" including by deploying security forces to disputed areas.

The resolution also called for the closure of border posts with Turkey and Iran that are outside central government control.

Abadi said Tuesday he would ban all international flights to and from Kurdistan in three days unless airports in its main cities Arbil and Sulaimaniyah were placed under his government's control.

Lebanon's Middle East Airlines and EgyptAir both said Wednesday they would halt flights to Arbil this week at the request of Baghdad.

Turkey fears the vote will stoke the separatist ambitions of its own sizeable Kurdish minority and on Tuesday President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Iraq's Kurds risked sparking an "ethnic war."

"If Barzani and the Kurdistan Regional Government do not go back on this mistake as soon as possible, they will go down in history with the shame of having dragged the region into an ethnic and sectarian war," he said.

Erdogan had earlier warned that Turkey would shut its border with Iraqi Kurdistan and threatened to block oil exports from the region through Turkey.

Erdogan even suggested the possibility of a cross-border incursion similar to the one Turkey carried out against IS and Kurdish fighters in Syria.

Monday's vote took place across the three northern provinces of autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan -- Arbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dohuk -- and in disputed border zones such as the oil-rich province of Kirkuk.

Opponents have accused Barzani of seeking to empower himself through the vote, and said he should have accepted a UN-backed plan to postpone the referendum in favor of negotiations with Baghdad.

Iran, which also has a large Kurdish minority, condemned the vote as well and on Sunday stopped all flights from its territory to and from Iraqi Kurdistan.

Analysts say that despite their threats, Baghdad, Ankara and Tehran are proceeding cautiously in reacting to the vote, wary of sparking a serious confrontation with the Kurds that would further destabilize an already volatile region.

Closing their borders with Iraqi Kurdistan would also hurt Turkey, which exports more than $8 billion worth of goods every year to the region, and Iran, which exports about $6 billion.

Left without a state of their own when the borders of the Middle East were redrawn after World War I, the Kurds see themselves as the world's largest stateless people.

The non-Arab ethnic group of between 25 and 35 million is spread across Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria.</s>STEPANAKERT (RFE/RL) — Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) on Wednesday welcomed the holding of a referendum on independence in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.

“We welcome the conduct of the referendum on independence in Iraqi Kurdistan an act of exercising peoples’ right to self-determination … upheld by the UN Charter and other fundamental international documents,” read a statement released by the Karabakh foreign ministry.

“We hope that the situation that has emerged as a result of the referendum will be settled peacefully, based on the need for stability and security in the region,” it added.

The referendum in Kurdistan was also hailed on Wednesday by Knyaz Hasanov, the leader of Armenia’s small Kurdish community. Hasanov, who was elected to the Armenian parliament in April, made clear at the same time that he will not press the authorities in Yerevan to recognize the vote and its outcome.

“Every state has its own interests and Armenia too has its own interests,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “Armenia has a good rapport with Iran, which opposes Kurdistan’s independence.”

“I’m not going to raise the issue of recognizing Kurdistan,” Hasanov said. “It’s up to the Armenian authorities, not me, to decide.”

Armenia’s government reacted cautiously to Monday’s vote condemned by the Iraqi government as well as Turkey and Iran. A spokesman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry said only that Yerevan is “monitoring developments.”

Yerevan also maintains cordial relations with both the Iraqi central government and the Kurdish regional administration in northern Iraq. It formally decided in March to open an Armenian consulate general in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. In February, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian held fresh talks with Massoud Barzani, the Iraqi Kurdish leader, on the sidelines of an international security conference in Germany.

was last modified: by</s>On Sunday, the Assistant Director in the Department of Migration & Displaced in the Nineveh province, Nazem Yahya issued a statement that there are at least 7 thousand families returning from various Iraqi provinces. Yahya indicated in a televised interview that a large number of these families left provinces in the Kurdistan region and the camps under the control of Kurdish authorities. Now, they are returning to Mosul due to their fear about the referendum scheduled on Monday 25th September 2017. He further added that the Iraqi Immigration Department has started the registration of these families in order to provide relief and various types of assistance to them. The Kurdish Supreme Council for referendum had expressed its rejection about all proposals regarding the postponement of Kurdistan referendum. The Council said that referendum will take place on its announced date 25th September 2017.

The Iraqi Federal Supreme Court also ordered to stop the Kurdish referendum for independence on 25th September. The court said that it needs to examine complaints that the referendum in Kurdish region is violating the Iraqi constitution. The Iraqi Parliament voted on 12th September and rejected the Kurdish referendum and Iraqi Federal Supreme Court ordered on 18th September to stop the referendum process in the Kurdistan region. The Iraqi Parliament issued a decision and allowed the Iraqi Prime Minister to take essential steps to preserve the unity of Iraq. Iraqi Parliamentarian Nazim Al-Saadi said that referendum is against the principles of political process and Iraqi Constitution, but the Kurdish people can play a key role. He added that referendum is illegal and it allows Iraqi government to stop it by all means and all powers. Saadi added that the agitation of Kurds represent a disgraceful threat to political and security stability in Iraq. Iraqi Kurdistan is an independent region in Northern Iraq led by KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government) President Massoud Barzani.
The government of Iraqi Kurdistan announces that they won the referendum by over 92% of the vote.