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Iraqi Kurdistan sets up supreme political council for talks with Baghdad

A referendum on independence for the Kurdistan region of Iraq was held on Monday

MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/. A supreme political council was set up in Iraqi Kurdistan on Sunday to establish dialogue with Baghdad and foreign countries following the Kurdistan independence referendum, Sky News Arabia reported.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Kurdistan Independence Referendum Supreme Council led by the autonomy’s government president Masoud Barzani in Erbil. The referendum council that included representatives from practically all Kurdish parties and ethnic and religious groups was tasked to organize and hold the referendum. Now that the referendum has taken place, the council has been dissolved.

A referendum on independence for the Kurdistan region of Iraq was held on Monday. The final results are due within the next few days, but preliminary results are already clear after more than 280,000 out of 3.3 million votes have been counted. They show that 95% said "yes" to independence.

Even before the referendum results were announced, parliament in Baghdad took a package of measures to respond to this unconstitutional, as it says, step. Thus, lawmakers demanded the government send Iraqi troops to the Kurds-controlled areas, block border checkpoints that are outside the federal government’s control, return oil fields in the area under the oil ministry’s jurisdiction, and close diplomatic missions in Erbil. From September 29, international air service with airports in Iraqi Kurdistan has been stopped.

Earlier, official Baghdad said it would never recognize the Kurdish plebiscite results and would hold no talks with the Kurdish leaders until they recognize the referendum results void.

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