MOSCOW, October 18. /TASS/. Iraqi President Fuad Maasum urged the Baghdad government and the Kurdish autonomy leadership to immediately launch a dialogue on overcoming the current crisis in an address televised by the Sky News - Arabia TV on Tuesday evening.

"I call on all sides of the conflict to immediately launch a dialogue on the basis of constitutional principles," he said, adding that the escalation of the crisis may have "devastating consequences."

"I call on the people of the [Iraqi] Kurdistan to respect the power of the law," he added.

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq, also known as Iraqi Kurdistan, is an autonomous region in the north of Iraq, with its legal status fixed in the Iraqi constitution of 2005. A referendum on independence for the Kurdistan region of Iraq was held on September 25. More than 90% of voters supported the idea of independence from Iraq.

Earlier, Iraq’s central authorities, in particular Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, made it quite clear that any talks are out of the question until the results of Iraqi Kurdistan’s independence referendum are revoked. Many states, including Iraq’s neighbors Iran and Turkey, also condemned the vote.

Iraqi Kurdistan’s leaders said on October 8 they were are ready for talks with the federal government in Baghdad without any preliminary conditions.