Northern Iraq’s Kurdish region braces for referendum

By Idris Okuducu

ERBIL, Iraq

A meeting held last week between Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) leaders and Iraqi officials discussed a planned referendum on the political fate of northern Iraq’s Kurdish region, according to a Kurdish lawmaker.

"The planned referendum will be held in September, alongside [KRG] presidential and parliamentary polls,” Erdelan Nureddin, an MP for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), told Anadolu Agency.

"The date for the referendum has already been conveyed to senior officials in Baghdad," he added.

Last week, a KRG delegation held talks in Baghdad with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, President Fuad Masum and Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri.

The delegation included KDP member Fazil Mirani; Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) member Adnan Mufti; and Fuad Hussein, chief-of-staff for KRG President Massoud Barzani.

Following a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres late last month, Barzani had said the planned referendum would be held “soon”.

The KDP and PUK -- two of the region’s leading political parties -- have drawn up a joint delegation tasked with discussing the planned referendum with other Kurdish political parties.

*Ali Murat Alhas contributed to this report from Ankara