- Title: Iraq's Kurds may delay independence vote for concessions from Baghdad: official
- Date: 20th August 2017
- Summary: SULAIMANIYA, IRAQ (AUGUST 19, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF PATRIOTIC UNION OF KURDISTAN POLITICAL BUREAU SIGN READING IN KURDISH, (English) AND (Arabic): "PATRIOTIC UNION OF KURDISTAN POLITICAL BUREAU" KURDISH FLAG (LEFT) EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF THE PATRIOTIC UNION OF KURDISTAN (PUK), MALA BAKHTIAR SEATED BAKHTIAR HANDS BAKHTIAR (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF THE PATRIOTIC UNION OF KURDISTAN (PUK), MALA BAKHTIAR SAYING: "It is the same thing. What is your alternative to postponing the referendum? According to my information there are negotiations for a plan to be presented for an alternative. What is this alternative plan that will be applied that could reinstate and improve our relationship with Baghdad?" MAKHMOUR, IRAQ (AUGUST 19, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PESHMERGA COMMANDER SIRWAN BARZANI, SEATED KURDISH FLAG (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PESHMERGA COMMANDER, SIRWAN BARZINI, SAYING: "Out of respect to the support we received from the [US] coalition to the Kurds, we answered that we are prepared to postpone the referendum but on a condition that we receive a binding document that it will be not this year, but next year. Or another month or even the day that you prefer. It has to be binding that you recognise the referendum and will support it. Until today the answer we received was a disapproval. They are prepared to issue a statement but one that is not binding. We are not prepared to take that risk because for over 100 years we have waited. [We have waited] for that king, that president and that prime minister with the hope that each one will be better than the one before. We have spent all this time just experimenting and we lost years and every ten years we try and over ten thousand citizens are killed and for what? We do not know.'' ERBIL, IRAQ (AUGUST 17, 2017) (REUTERS) ERBIL ANCIENT CITADEL VARIOUS OF KURDISH FLAG BEHIND CITADEL OF ERBIL VARIOUS OF ERBIL MARKET VARIOUS OF MAN READING NEWSPAPER WITH REFERENDUM ADVERT VARIOUS OF VIEW OF ERBIL CITADEL FROM MARKET
- 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: LVA0016UYMYX3
- 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
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None