Alwaght- Iraqi President has called for a dialogue between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to resolve the crisis ignited by a recent Kurdish referendum on independence.
President Fuad Masum Masum, himself a Kurd, blamed a Kurdish breakaway referendum for triggering a military intervention by Iraqi forces to take control of the disputed province of Kirkuk.
“Holding a referendum on the Kurdistan region’s independence from Iraq stirred grave disagreements between the central government and the government of Kurdistan,” Masum, said in a televised address.
The vote “led to federal security forces retaking direct control of Kirkuk,” he said.
Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish Regional Government defied calls by Baghdad and the international community and went ahead to organize the controversial and deeply divisive referendum on September 25.
Masum said the central government had made “strenuous efforts to reach a solution.”
But, he said, a “grave crisis... broke out between the federal government and the government of Iraqi Kurdistan because the latter insisted on unilaterally holding the referendum.”
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi also said the Kurdish referendum "is finished and has become a thing of the past."
Addressing a news conference in Baghdad, Abadi called for dialog with Kurdish authorities to resolve the dispute "under the Constitution."
Since Monday Iraqi forces have launched large-scale operations to retake disputed area from KRG militias, known as Peshmerga.
Disputed regions label covers some parts of Kirkuk, Diyala, Nineveh and Saladin provinces on which the Iraqi government and Kurds struggle for control and demographic structure determination. Taking advantage of vacuum of power created by ISIS incursion into the country, Kurdish militias seized control of many parts of these disputed areas.
Iraqi army along with Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) have so far managed to establish control over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, Tuz Khurmatu, Sinjar as well as Khanaqin district.
