Ali Akbar Velayati, an international advisor to Iran's Leader, has dismissed allegations of the Islamic Republic’s involvement in the Iraqi army’s operation to retake the oil-rich city of Kirkuk from Kurdish forces.
The Iraqi central government forces have retaken the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk on Monday in an operation launched on Sunday in response to Kurdistan’s independence referendum.
Iraqi premier has reportedly appointed an Arab politician as the new acting governor of Kirkuk, which is the scene of conflict between Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmarga since the beginning of the central government’s operation to retake the oil-rich city.
Iraqi forces have taken full control of the largest airbase of Kirkuk, known as K1, after recapturing vast areas of the city from Kurds in an operation started on Sunday night.
While Iran’s nuclear deal is grabbing the international headlines, oil market experts are mainly concerned with the internal divisions in Iraq, particularly the conflict over the secession of Iraqi Kurdistan as the main element which can influence the global oil prices.
Iraqi central government in Baghdad has set a deadline for the Kurdish Peshmerga forces to leave and hand over the areas which had been under the control of the army before the ISIS attack.
Baghdad’s ban on the arrival and departure of foreign flights at/from Kurdistan airports has reportedly caused a loss of 50 to 60 thousand dollars a day.
The eldest son of late former Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, has praised an Iranian medical team for their efforts to offer good services to his father during treatment period.
An Iraqi Vice President, after meeting with the President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani, has announced that he is ready to ignore the referendum results in return for the lifting of sanctions against Erbil.
A German teenager who had joined the ISIS terrorist group has explained how she managed to travel from Germany to Turkey and then to Syria and Iraq to fight for the terrorist group.
In an official note to Tehran and Ankara, the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called on the two countries to stop their trade deals with the Kurdistan region amid the KRG’s secessionism.
A senior political commentator believes there will be no reason for Iranian Kurds to go for secession if their rights are respected and their demands met.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has once again emphasized that Ankara only recognizes Iraq’s central government, stressing that the Iraqi Kurdistan’s secessionism will bring the KRG nothing but isolation.
Western countries in recent days have adopted double-standard policies on two similar secession plebiscites held in two parts of the world one week apart.
Kurdish security forces known as Asayesh and Peshmerga fighters have deported scores of Arab and Turkmen families from Iraq’s northern province of Kirkuk following last week’s referendum on secession.
An Iranian analyst says holding a referendum on the secession of the Iraqi Kurdistan region not only would not help the region achieve independence, but also will make it more difficult for Kurds to secede from Iraq.
The Iranian parliament on Wednesday condemned the Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s move to hold an independence referendum, saying such separatist measures are to the detriment of Iraq and the whole region.
The presidents of Iran and Russia have expressed their support for Iraq’s territorial integrity and national unity amid a highly controversial referendum on independence of the country’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
Since Monday morning, the Iraqi Kurds have started casting their votes for or against the Iraqi Kurdistan region’s independence amid domestic and international opposition to the referendum.
An Iranian legislator says a possible conflict emanating from a planned referendum on the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan may strengthen ISIS terrorists.
Leonid Ivashov, the chief of Russia’s Academy for Geopolitical Problems, says the United States has nasty plans for the Middle East, stressing that the referendum on Iraqi Kurdistan’s independence is part of this plan which is called the Greater Middle East.
