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Iraq Kurdish Leader Resists Pressure to Scrap Independence Vote

Iraq Kurdish Leader Resists Pressure to Scrap Independence Vote
folder_openMiddle East... access_time6 years ago
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Local Editor

Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani insisted Friday that the controversial September 25 independence referendum for his autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq will go ahead, even as last-minute negotiations aimed to change his mind.

Iraq Kurdish Leader Resists Pressure to Scrap Independence Vote

Iraq's Kurds have faced mounting international pressure, including from neighboring Turkey and Iran, to call off the referendum that the UN Security Council has warned was potentially destabilizing.

"The referendum is no longer in my hands, nor is it in those of the [political] parties -- it is in your hands," Barzani told a large crowd at a football stadium in the regional capital Arbil.

"We say that we are ready for serious open-minded dialogue with Baghdad, but after September 25, because now it is too late," he said of Monday's plebiscite.

Negotiations are still taking place aimed at persuading Barzani to postpone any referendum, according to officials close to the discussions.

"Nothing is definitive yet. Discussions are continuing to try to offer him serious guarantees that will convince him to change his mind," said one official who did not wish to be identified.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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