NAN-F-14
Referendum
Beirut, Sept. 25, 2017 (Reuters/NA) The Syrian government has rejected the independence referendum organised by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the northern Iraq, Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem, said on Monday.
Voting started on Monday in northern Iraq despite intense international and regional pressure to call the vote off.
“We in Syria only recognise a united Iraq and reject any procedure that leads to the fragmentation of Iraq.
“This step is rejected and we do not recognise it and yesterday I informed the Iraqi foreign minister of this stance,” al-Moualem was cited as saying by Syrian state news agency SANA.
An assistant to the Syrian foreign minister said that what is happening in Iraq “is a product of American policies that aim to fragment the region’s countries and create conflict between its parts.”
The referendum “harms Iraq and harms our Kurdish brothers,” Ayman Soussan said.
The Shi‘ite-led government in Baghdad has maintained relations with Damascus throughout the country’s war, even as other Arab states cut ties with President Bashar al-Assad’s administration.
Iraqi Shi‘ite militias have fought on Assad’s side against Syrian rebels and Islamic State.
The Syrian government, which is regaining territory with Iranian and Russian military backing, also opposes steps taken by Syrian Kurds toward autonomy in northern Syria since the start of the country’s civil war in 2011.
Kurdish-led regions in Syria held elections for community leaders on Friday, the first in a three-phase vote that will culminate in the election of a parliament and the establishment of a federal system of government.
Syrian Kurds insist independence is not their aim and they want to remain part of a decentralised Syria.
In another development, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could cut off the pipeline that carries oil from northern Iraq to the outside world, piling more pressure on the semi-autonomous region over its independence referendum.
“After this, let’s see through which channels the northern Iraqi regional government will send its oil, or where it will sell it.
“We have the tap.
“The moment we close the tap, then it’s done,” Erdogan said in a speech at a forum in Istanbul.
He stopped short of saying that Turkey had decided to close off the oil flow.
Hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day flow through the pipeline in Turkey from the northern Iraq region. (Reuters/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Abdullahi Yusuf