Leader’s aide warns of new US, Israeli plot to partition Iraq

by Tauqeer Abbas
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A senior Iranian official says a highly controversial referendum on independence of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region is a new US-Israeli plot in the Middle East to partition the country, warning that the Kurds will suffer as a result of the plan.

“After the defeat of Daesh [terrorist group] in Syria and Iraq, Kurdistan’s referendum will result in escalation of tensions and crisis in the region,” Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top military advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said on Monday.

Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region kicked off an independence referendum on Monday in the face of strong objections from the central government in Baghdad and urgent calls from the international community to scrap the vote.

The voting stations are dotted across the three provinces of Erbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dohuk that form the Iraqi Kurdistan Region as well as in the disputed bordering zones such as the oil-rich province of Kirkuk.

Initial results are expected to be announced 24 hours after the vote. The non-binding vote on the secession of the semi-autonomous region has irked the central government.

The high-ranking Iranian official added that even if the Kurdish people voted “yes” for the independence of the region, Iraq’s central government, parliament and military forces would not accept the result.

Rahim Safavi emphasized that Iran had expressed its objection to the plebiscite by closing its airspace to all flights to and from the Kurdish region in Iraq.

Keyvan Khosravi, a spokesman for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), said on Sunday Iran had closed its airspace to all flights to and from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq at the request of the country’s federal government.

“At the request of the central government of Iraq, all flights from Iran to Sulaymaniyah and Erbil airports as well as all flights through our country’s airspace originating in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region have been halted,” Khosravi said.

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