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Iraq

Iraq's premier gives Kurdish officials 3 days to hand over control of airports

2017-09-27

[Iran Press TV] Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has given the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) three days to hand over control of its airports if it seeks to avoid an international air embargo, a retaliatory move the Iraqi government says will take against the independence-seeking region in the wake of a highly controversial referendum.

The Iraqi premier made the remarks in a weekly presser in the capital Baghdad on Tuesday. He said international flights to and from the Kurdish region would be suspended in three days.

Last week, Baghdad called on all countries to stop direct flights to the international airports of Erbil, the capital city of the KRG, and Sulaymaniyah, another city in the Iraqi Kurdistan, but so far only Iran has put in place such an air embargo, halting direct flights to the region on Sunday.

Abadi added that Baghdad would not negotiate with the Kurdish authorities the results of the provocative plebiscite on the independence of the KRG, which is led by

Massoud Barzani
... hereditary head of the Kurdish Democratic Party, maybe a little too close to the Medes and the Persians for most people's tastes...
. The Iraqi prime minister said the whole nation would suffer from the repercussions of the "unconstitutional" move.

The contentious non-binding Monday vote, which had been announced by the KRG earlier in the year, was held in the region in open defiance of Baghdad and much to the consternation of the international community that warned it could most likely create more trouble in the already violence-weary Arab country, which is trying to emerge from years of a campaign of death and destruction by ISIS Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
terrorists.

Posted by:Fred

#10 Might be a good time to set up Mil Equip storage/staging sites in Kurdistan stock them with future Turkey NATO stocks and beef them up

Posted by: Frank G 2017-09-27 21:48

#9 Or we'll deliver to you, some used American military equipment. Lightly used and boot tracks running away from it.

Posted by: bbrewer126 2017-09-27 21:18

#8 The honorable thing to do is to support the Kurds. The klingons and state dept mandarins however will stab them in the back.

Posted by: John Frum 2017-09-27 18:58

#7 Newest member of NATO? Kurdistan

Watch Yippy's head pop like a pimple

Posted by: Frank G 2017-09-27 15:16

#6 This will lead to the partition of Syria, Turkey, and Iran. Of course Iran would immediately join in an air embargo. Watch for incursions by the Turks, and unrest North of that border.

Posted by: si vis pacem, para bellum 2017-09-27 13:40

#5 Could not partition during a civil war because.... Only the Kurds would fight hard enough to end it.

The Kurds saved that place, and now they need a place. Do not defy me on this now.

Posted by: newc 2017-09-27 09:24

#4 splitting Iraq into three independent countries: Sunni, Shiite and Kurd

One of the only good ideas Slow Joe Biden ever had

Posted by: Frank G 2017-09-27 08:35

#3 It'll throw the graft industry into disarray, y'know.

Posted by: Pappy 2017-09-27 08:23

#2 Quite some time ago, I recall a discussion at the Burg about splitting Iraq into three independent countries: Suni, Shite and Kurd. Iraq's modern borders were made-up in 1920 when the Ottoman Empire was divided by treaty and Iraq was placed under the authority of the Brits. Maybe splitting Iraq into three countries is an idea to revisit again.

Posted by: JohnQC 2017-09-27 07:40

#1 Or?

Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2017-09-27 03:18

00:00