- Title: Iraq's Kurds may delay independence vote for concessions from Baghdad: official
- Date: 20th August 2017
- Summary: STREET VENDOR SELLING FLUTE INSTRUMENT, ABU BAKR VARIOUS OF ABU BAKR PLAYING THE FLUTE
- Embargoed: 3rd September 2017 21:15
- Keywords: Iraq Kurds referendum Barzani Baghdad U.S. politics independence
- Location: SULAIMANIYA AND MAKHMOUR AND ERBIL, IRAQ
- City: SULAIMANIYA AND MAKHMOUR AND ERBIL, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA0026UYMYX3
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Iraq's Kurds may consider the possibility of postponing a planned September 25 referendum on independence in return for financial and political concessions from the central government in Baghdad, a senior Kurdish official said.
A Kurdish delegation is visiting Baghdad to sound out proposals from Iraqi leaders that might convince the Kurds to postpone the vote, according to Mala Bakhtiar, executive secretary of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Politburo.
The United States and other Western nations fear the vote could ignite a fresh conflict with Baghdad and possibly neighbouring countries, diverting attention from the ongoing war against Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq and Syria.
The Kurds have been seeking an independent state since at least the end of World War One, when colonial powers divided up the Middle East under an agreement that became known as the Sykes-Picot agreement and left Kurdish-populated territory split between modern-day Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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