Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Iraq's Kurdish region foreign affairs minister says independence is 'inevitable'

Turkey's president has said Iraqi Kurds could go hungry as a result of the punitive measures he is considering after Monday's independence referendum.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of "treachery" for holding the vote despite international opposition.

Massoud Barzani should now "give up on this adventure", he said.

Iraq's prime minister meanwhile gave the KRG three days to hand over control of its airports or face an air embargo.

Haider al-Abadi also demanded that all border posts with Turkey, Syria and Iran be placed under Baghdad's supervision, state TV reports.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Iraqi soldiers joined Turkish troops for exercises on the Turkish side of the border on Tuesday

In a televised address on Tuesday, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani urged the prime minister "not to close the door to dialogue, because it is dialogue that will solve problems".

But Mr Abadi ruled out negotiations, declaring: "We will not abandon the unity and sovereignty of Iraq."

Image copyright AFP Image caption Some 72% of the 5.2 million people eligible to vote in Kurdish-controlled areas voted

On Monday he said he would not discuss the referendum result because it had been "unconstitutional".

The results have yet to be announced, but Mr Barzani said on Tuesday his voters had chosen independence.

Kurdish leaders have said a "yes" vote will not automatically trigger a declaration of independence, but rather give them a mandate to start negotiations on secession with the central government in Baghdad and with neighbouring countries.

'Sabre-rattling for domestic audience'

By Mark Lowen, Turkey correspondent, BBC News

This was the strongest rhetoric yet from President Erdogan on the Kurdish referendum. He called it a "threat to national security". Once again he threatened military or economic intervention, without elaborating.

Turkey is worried that independence might further Kurdish insurgency here and is concerned for ethnic Turkmen in the city of Kirkuk, which the Kurds want to be part of any future state. But there was a lot for a domestic audience - sabre-rattling to please nationalists at home.

Ankara has built a strong relationship with the Iraqi Kurds through an oil pipeline that feeds the Kurdish economy and Turkey's energy needs. And the authorities in Irbil oppose the PKK Kurdish militant group, allowing Turkish military bases in northern Iraq. Mr Erdogan warned he could close the oil valves in Turkey - but it has not yet happened.

With Turkey's notoriously abrasive president, the oratory sometimes does not actually translate into action.

In a speech on Tuesday, Mr Erdogan said he had expected "until the last moment" that Kurdistan Regional President Massoud Barzani would postpone the vote.

"This referendum decision, which has been taken without any consultation, is treachery," he said.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Kexit? Iraqi Kurdistan referendum explained - by the voters themselves

"If Barzani and the Kurdish Regional Government do not go back on this mistake as soon as possible, they will go down in history with the shame of having dragged the region into an ethnic and sectarian war," he warned.

Turkey fears that the emergence of an independent Kurdish state on its border will stoke separatist feeling in its own Kurdish minority.

Mr Erdogan said Turkey might now impose sanctions to persuade Mr Barzani's administration to "give up on this adventure that can only have a dark end".

"It will be over when we close the oil taps, all [their] revenues will vanish, and they will not be able to find food when our trucks stop going to northern Iraq," he added.

Cross-border trade between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey was worth some $5bn (£3.7bn) in the first six months of 2017, according to Kurdish officials, while hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil flow daily through a pipeline from Kurdish-controlled oil fields to the Mediterranean via Turkish territory.

Iraqi soldiers also joined Turkish troops for military exercises in south-eastern Turkey on Monday, near the border with Iraq.

Iran, which also has a Kurdish minority, banned direct flights to and from the Kurdistan Region on Sunday.

The US earlier said it was "deeply disappointed" that the Kurdistan Region held the referendum, but stressed that their "historic relationship" would not change.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Celebrations continued long into the night in the disputed city of Kirkuk

The referendum was held in the three Iraqi provinces that make up the Kurdistan Region, as well as in adjoining disputed areas claimed by the Kurds and the Arab-led central government that are controlled by Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

The Kurdish news agency Rudaw reported that 72% of the 5.2 million Kurds and non-Kurds registered as resident in those areas had voted. Ballots were still being counted on Tuesday, with initial results expected by the end of the day.

Kurds are the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East but they have never obtained a permanent nation state.

In Iraq, where they make up an estimated 15% to 20% of the population of 37 million, Kurds faced decades of repression before acquiring autonomy in 1991. </s> Traditional Middle East rivals Iran and Turkey have found themselves united of late by their mutual opposition to Kurdish independence in Iraq and common interest in ending the six-year war in Syria, among other leading issues in the region.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke Sunday by phone, expressing major concerns a day before voting opened in the northern Kurdish autonomous region of neighboring Iraq. Monday's referendum, in which the region's residents are largely expected to ask for full independence from Baghdad, has been met with widespread criticism from Iraq's central government, as well as from Iran and Turkey, which have battled insurgencies from their own local Kurdish populations and have taken countermeasures to quell potential instability the vote could bring.

Related: Next Middle East war? Kurdish referendum brings hope and fears of new conflict to Iraq

"The two leaders noted that not canceling the referendum will bring with it chaos to the region and they also stressed the great importance which they attach to Iraq's territorial integrity," Erdogan's office said in a statement, according to Reuters.

Turkey had already begun conducting military exercises near its border with Iraq's majority-Kurd north and even said it launched an airstrike Saturday against militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who were preparing for an attack on Turkish troops from northern Iraq, Reuters reported. Erdogan threatened Monday to cut oil trade and send Turkish troops to invade the would-be Kurdish state, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported. As polls closed, Turkey and Iraq conducted "large-scale" joint military drills as a show of force, according to the Associated Press.

Shortly after, local media reported that Iran, too, may join the bilateral exercises. Iran launched its own military maneuvers Sunday to mark the 1980 invasion of Iran by the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the subsequent eight-year war, according to Press TV, the English-language affiliate of the semi-official Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting outlet. The maneuvers have reportedly featured multiple airstrikes along Iraq's border with Iran.

Iran also closed its border with Iraq's Kurdish region Sunday and halted all flights there. While the intensity of Iran's domestic Kurdish insurgency has never reached the level of Turkey's, Iran also supports majority-Shiite Muslim Iraqi militias known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces, or Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi, whose influence and movement would likely be restricted as the result of an independent Kurdish state.

These fighters proved an effective force against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) after the jihadists took over about half the country in 2014, and they even fought alongside Kurdish forces also battling ISIS. The militias are deeply opposed, however, to an Iraq divided between Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi—an ally of both the U.S. and Iran—in Baghdad and Kurdish Regional Government President Masoud Barzani in Erbil, whose only steady international support has come from Israel, further offending local actors.

These Iran-backed militias retain a presence in disputed areas such as Kirkuk, whose inclusion in Monday's referendum has made the move even more controversial. As tensions brewed in the days leading up to the referendum, Qais al-Khazali, head of the Popular Mobilization Forces unit Asaib Ahl al-Haq, spoke out against the possibility of a Kurdish state.

"The enemies of Imam Hussein raised the flag of the homosexuals in Erbil at the wishes of the Israelis," Khazali said Saturday, referencing the seventh-century Islamic figure highly revered by Shiite Muslims for his refusal to pledge allegiance to the Umayyad caliphate, which he considered unjust and illegitimate.

"We will be victorious over anyone who wants to hurt or divide Iraq," he added, in a speech excerpt provided to Newsweek by Ahmad Majidyar, director of the Middle East Institute's IranObserved Project.

Iran and Turkey have also increasingly coordinated across the border in Syria, where they back opposing sides in a conflict that's killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions. Iran, along with Russia, is a supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey backs rebels trying to overthrow him since 2011. Opposition forces, with help from the U.S. and Gulf Arab states as well, made major gains early on in the war, but Assad and his allies have since regained much of what was lost.

A series of Syrian government victories and a rise in jihadist influence among rebel groups alienated international backers from the Syrian opposition and, as the Syrian military took Aleppo late last year, Turkey was forced to come to the table and make a deal with Russia and Iran. These negotiations, based in Astana, have since produced a framework for four de-escalation zones designed to provide refuge for civilians.

As Erdogan wrapped up a trip to Moscow to discuss Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced Monday that Turkey, Iran and Russia would work together to create a new de-escalation zone near the northern city of Afrin, which is under the control of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a mostly Kurdish alliance of Arabs and ethnic minorities planning their own push for greater autonomy. U.S. support for Kurds, especially in Syria, has angered Turkey, a NATO partner.

"We are now taking joint moves with Iran and Russia to establish a de-escalation zone in the area of the Syrian city of Afrin in the north of the country," Yildirim said, according to the state-run Tass Russian News Agency.

Iran and Turkey have united against a third foe, Saudi Arabia. Persian Gulf rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia have been engaged in a proxy war throughout the region for decades. Saudi Arabia cut off relations with Iran completely early last year after Iranian demonstrators outraged by Riyadh's execution of an influential Shiite Muslim cleric stormed the Saudi Arabian embassy in Iran. It was when Saudi Arabia severed ties with neighboring Qatar earlier this year, however, that Turkey stepped in.

Shortly after President Donald Trump returned from an anti-Iran rally in the oil-rich kingdom, Saudi Arabia and allies Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates announced in June a total boycott of Qatar over alleged ties to both Shiite Muslim groups tied to Iran and ultraconservative Sunni Muslim groups. Qatar denied the charges, leading Turkey and Iran to defy the Saudi-led blockade to deliver aid. Turkey also held military exercises on its only foreign military base, located in Qatar. </s> Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard has begun a military exercise in the northwestern Kurdish region near the Iraqi border ahead of a Kurdish independence referendum in the neighboring country.

The Guard’s website did not say how long the drill will last, only that airborne and missile units will participate in the exercise.

Iraq’s Kurds are set to vote Monday in a referendum on support for independence. The Kurds are likely to approve the referendum, but the non-binding vote is not expected to result in any formal declaration of independence.

Iran and Iraq have been close allies since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. Both are opposed to Kurdish independence, and Baghdad has said the referendum is unconstitutional. </s> Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard has begun a military exercise in the northwestern Kurdish region near the Iraqi border ahead of a Kurdish independence referendum in the neighboring country.

The Guard's website did not say how long the drill will last, only that airborne and missile units will participate in the exercise.

Iraq's Kurds are set to vote Monday in a referendum on support for independence. The Kurds are likely to approve the referendum, but the non-binding vote is not expected to result in any formal declaration of independence.

Iran and Iraq have been close allies since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. Both are opposed to Kurdish independence, and Baghdad has said the referendum is unconstitutional. </s> Iran urged Turkey on Monday to stop its military offensive in Syria, saying the operation in the northern Afrin region breached Syrian sovereignty and would increase tension in the war-damaged country.

Turkey last month launched an air and ground campaign, dubbed Operation Olive Branch, against the Kurdish YPG militia in Afrin.

"Turkey should stop its operation and respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

"Turkey’s actions can bring back insecurity, instability and terrorism to Syria," he added.

Qasemi said any solution to the Syrian crisis should be discussed in talks in the Kazakh capital Astana that are sponsored by Russia, Iran, and Turkey.

He said Iran was in continuous talks with both Turkey and Russia about the latest developments in Syria.

Ankara considers the U.S.-backed YPG, which controls Afrin, to be a terrorist group and an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has fought an insurgency in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast since 1984.

The Syrian government last week called the Turkish offensive in Afrin an illegal "aggression" and said it would deal with it accordingly. </s> The Iraqi government gave the Kurdistan Regional Government three days to hand over control of its airports in order to avoid an international air embargo, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday, according to state TV.

The measure is meant as a retaliation against the independence referendum held by the KRG in northern Iraq on Monday.

>> Israel is right to support Kurdish independence. But it is unwise / Analysis >>

Last week, Baghdad asked foreign countries to stop direct flights to the international airports of Erbil and Sulaimaniya, in KRG territory, but only Iran declared such an air embargo, halting direct flights to Kurdistan.

Tehran has vowed to stand alongside Baghdad and Ankara against the outcome of the referendum. On Tuesday, Iranian state media quoted an army commander as saying that new missile systems have been installed in western provinces that border Iraqi Kurdish areas to "firmly respond to any invasion."

"The Iraqi people won't stand silent. Iran and Turkey and other regional countries won't stand silent and will stand against this abhorrent deviation," Ali Akbar Velayati, the top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency. "The Muslim nations will not allow the creation of a second Israel."

Velayati did not say what action Iran had in mind. However, the country's media have compared the Kurds' desire for a homeland with the 1948 creation of Israel. The Islamic republic regards the Jewish state as its greatest enemy along with the United States.

The vote organized by Kurdish authorities is expected to deliver a comfortable "yes" for independence, but is not binding. However, it is designed to give Masoud Barzani, who heads the KRG, a mandate to negotiate the secession of the oil-producing region.

Iran, Iraq and Turkey - countries with Kurdish minorities - have all denounced the referendum as a threat to the stability of a region already beset by conflict, while the United States has expressed similar disquiet.

On Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered security services "to protect citizens being threatened and coerced" in the Kurdish region, after unconfirmed reports that Arabs in a small town in eastern Iraq were compelled to vote yes. Kurdish officials say no such coercion happened.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Turkey could cut off the pipeline that carries oil from northern Iraq to the outside world, piling more pressure on the Kurds. "After this, let's see through which channels the northern Iraqi regional government will send its oil, or where it will sell it," Erdogan said in Istanbul. "We have the tap. The moment we close the tap, then it's done."

As polls closed on Monday evening, the Iraqi army started "major maneuvers" with the Turkish army at the border, outlining coordinated measures by the two countries against the Kurds in retaliation for the referendum. Turkey later took the Rudaw TV channel off its satellite service TurkSat, a Turkish broadcasting official told Reuters </s> "Turkey has its links with the opposition in Syria. So we think Turkey can play a major role in freeing our pilgrims," Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters as he arrived in Ankara.

A busload of 48 Iranians was seized in Syria on Saturday. Tehran says they were pilgrims visiting a Shi'ite Muslim shrine, denying suggestions that they were military personnel helping President Bashar al-Assad put down a rebellion.

A Syrian rebel spokesman said on Monday that three of the Iranians had been killed in a government air strike and said the rest would be executed if the attacks did not stop. There has been no word on their fate since then.

The once close ties between the Middle East's two non-Arab powers have been ravaged by events in Syria. Turkey has demanded Assad quit but Iran supports his suppression of the "terrorists" it says are backed by its regional and Western enemies.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called comments by Iran's top general Hassan Firouzabadi this week blaming Turkey for the bloodshed in Syria "regrettable" and denied his country has meddled in Syrian affairs.

"The statement by Iran's chief of general staff on a website belonging to the Revolutionary Guards that Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are responsible for the bloody developments in Syria is worrying and regrettable," Erdogan told members of his party in comments broadcast live by NTV television.

Erdogan also sought to remind Tehran he had been one of its few defenders amid Western pressure to boycott Iran over its nuclear programme, which the United States and others believe is aimed at making an atomic bomb, despite Iran's denials.

"When no one else was by its side, Turkey was the country that stood by Iran, despite everything. Turkey was also the country that defended (its right to) nuclear energy," he said.

"But on Syria, once again I ask the Iranians: Does defending a regime that kills its brothers, and I think it has reached 25,000 by now, suit our values, our beliefs?"

Before Salehi's plane landed in Ankara, the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement in which it called the comments from Firouzabadi "unacceptable and irresponsible."

As Salehi arrived in Turkey, another senior Iranian foreign policy official was in Damascus to reassure Assad of Tehran's support.

"Iran will not allow the axis of resistance, of which it considers Syria to be an essential part, to be broken in any way," Syrian state television quoted Saeed Jalili, the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, as telling Assad.

Reflecting Iran's view that its enemies in the Middle East and the West are backing the Syrian rebels, Jalili, the representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the 17-month uprising was a "conflict between the axis of resistance and its enemies in the region and the world".

The "axis of resistance" refers to Iran's alliance with Syria and Lebanon's Shi'ite group Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006, with Iranian and Syrian support. It also includes some Palestinian militant groups.

Assad reiterated his determination to defeat the rebels, affirming "the Syrian people and government's determination to cleanse the country of terrorists", the TV report said.

Assad is a member of the Alawite faith, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has dominated Syrian politics through more than 40 years of his family's rule in a country that has a Sunni Muslim majority.

Iran is the Middle East's Shi'ite Muslim power whose regional influence is viewed with suspicion by its mostly Sunni Arab neighbours in the Gulf.

While Syrian rebels accuse Iran of sending fighters from its Revolutionary Guard to help Assad's forces put down the uprising, Iranian officials have blamed the United States, Turkey and Qatar for the kidnapping of its citizens.

"We do not only blame the terrorists on this issue," Jalili told reporters in comments aired on Iranian television. "All those who help them ... are participants in their criminal actions, and we hold them responsible."

Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani, in a speech in parliament aired on Iranian television, said: "In the name of Islam, some of these governments have launched killings and even treat Iranian pilgrims in Syria with violence. These crimes are not something the Iranian nation will disregard.

"The American regime and some countries in the region are responsible for these crimes. And they will receive their response in turn." </s> TEHRAN (Reuters) - The presidents of Turkey, Iran and Russia on Friday failed to agree on a ceasefire that would forestall a Syrian government offensive in rebel-held Idlib province which the United Nations fears could cause a humanitarian catastrophe involving tens of thousands of civilians.

Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Hassan Rouhani, meeting in Tehran for a summit of key foreign players in Syria’s war, agreed in a final statement that there could be no military solution to the conflict and it could only end through a negotiated political process.

But as Syrian government and Russian warplanes mounted air strikes in Idlib on Friday morning in a possible prelude to a full-scale offensive, Putin and Rouhani pushed back against Erdogan’s call for a truce.

The Turkish leader said he feared a massacre and Turkey could not accommodate any more refugees flooding over its border.

Putin said a ceasefire would be pointless as it would not involve Islamist militant groups it deems terrorists. Rouhani said Syria must regain control over all its territory.

Idlib is the insurgents’ only remaining major stronghold and a government offensive could be the war’s last decisive battle.

Tehran and Moscow have helped Assad turn the course of the war against an array of opponents ranging from Western-backed rebels to the Islamist militants, while Turkey is a leading opposition supporter and has troops in the country.

Their discussions in Tehran mark a crucial point in a seven-year-old war which has killed more than half a million people and forced 11 million to flee their homes.

Erdogan, in his opening remarks, said a ceasefire in Idlib would be a victory for their summit.

Putin responded: “The fact is that there are no representatives of the armed opposition here around this table. And more still, there are no representatives of Jabhat al-Nusra or ISIS or the Syrian army.”.

“I think in general the Turkish president is right. It would be good. But I can’t speak for them, and even more so can’t talk for terrorists from Jabhat al-Nusra or ISIS that they will stop shooting or stop using drones with bombs.”

In the final statement, the three agreed on the need to eliminate Islamic State, the Nusra Front, and other groups linked to al Qaeda and designated as terrorists. But there were other armed opposition groups who could join any ceasefire agreement, they said.

The communique also called on the United Nations and the international community to step up humanitarian aid to Syria and help in restoring basic infrastructure assets.

Efforts must be made to protect and to create conditions for the safe return of refugees, it added.

Iran’s Rouhani said the battle in Syria would continue until rebels were pushed out of the whole country, especially in Idlib, but he added that any military operations should avoid hurting civilians.

He called on all rebels in Syria to disarm and seek a peaceful end to the conflict.

“The fight against terrorism in Idlib is an indispensable part of the mission to return peace and stability to Syria, but this fight should not harm civilians and lead to a “scorched-earth” policy,” Rouhani said.

Erdogan said Turkey no longer had the capacity to take in any more refugees from Syria should the government offensive in Idlib go ahead. Turkey has accepted 3.5 million refugees from Syria since the start of the war in 2011.

“Whatever reason there is an attack that has been made or will be made will result in disaster, massacre and humanitarian drama,” he said. “Millions will be coming to Turkey’s borders because they have nowhere to go. Turkey has filled its capacity to host refugees.”

The Assad government was not directly represented at the summit, nor were the United States and other Western powers.

The United States came in for criticism from all sides, however, higlighting to complex nature of a conflict involving a myriad of factions.

Rouhani said the United States should end its presence in Syria, while Erdogan said Turkey was “extremely annoyed” by Washington’s support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, whom Ankara considers as terrorists linked to Kurdish separatists in Turkey.

Widely abhorred internationality for the brutal conduct of the war, Assad has largely reclaimed most of Syrian territory though much of it is ravaged. Although the West has long said he must stand down or be removed, that looks unlikely at this point.

Meanwhile, the fate of Idlib hung in the balance.

The United Nations Security Council met to discuss Idlib on Friday at the request of the United States, and U.N. Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura said there were “all the ingredients for a perfect storm”.

“The dangers are profound that any battle for Idlib could be, would be a horrific and bloody battle,” de Mistura said. </s> Ali Akbar Velayati, a top advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday told Tehran Times that the US and the “Zionist regime of Israel” were behind Kurdish President Masoud Barzani’s decision to hold a referendum on declaring independence for his country—a region of the State of Iraq.

Velayati warned that Kurdish independence would introduce “political chaos” in the Middle East, and predicted that “the Kurds will definitely topple Barzani before the Iraqi government would do so.”

The vast majority of Iraqi Kurds voted in favor of independence. After counting 3,440,616 legitimate votes, 91.83% answered Yes to the question, “Do you want the Kurdistan Region and the Kurdistani areas outside the administration of the Region to become an independent state?” Only 8.17% said No.

Velayati called the referendum’s results “insubstantial” and with no “positive result,” mostly because “Iran will not accept the partition of Iraq.”

Thanks to President GW Bush’s toppling of Sunni Sadam Huseein’s government in 2003, a Shiite government with strong ties with Shiite Iran has taken over the country.

Spaeker of the Majlis parliament Ali Larijani also said that Iran “will not accept” the partition of Iraq and said Tehran will stand beside the Iraqi central government.

He also said that disintegration of regional countries is an “Israeli policy” and would not meet the interests of any ethnic group.

Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami also said Iran is against any move to disintegrate regional countries and change their geographical borders. During a meeting with Turkish Ambassador to Tehran Riza Hakan Tekin, Hatami said it is Iran’s principled policy to respect national sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries.

Mohammadi Golpayegani, the chief of staff of the Supreme Leader’s office, also said that the independence referendum in the Iraqi Kurdistan is a “Zionist plot” intended to foment new crisis after the end of the ISIS era in Iraq.

“You may be assured that it is a plot by the Zionist regime now that ISIS is collapsing,” Mohammadi stated. “Now they have raised a new issue in the region.” He warned that “referendum and its related issues will cause many problems for the Kurds and the neighboring countries.”

Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri blamed the “Zionist regime” for orchestrating the independence referendum in the Iraqi Kurdistan. “The Zionist regime of Israel and the global arrogance are behind the referendum,” he said.
Iran and Turkey have vowed that there may be military aggression if the result is independence.