The Kurdistan regional parliament voted on Friday to continue with the referendum slated for Sept. 25. Earlier in the day, Barzani said the vote would go ahead because no viable alternative had been presented, hinting a rejection to a proposal from the United States, Britain, and UN to postpone the vote.
Iraq's neighbors and many western countries are lobbying for a delay of the referendum because they see the referendum as potentially damaging to the ongoing fight against the Islamic State (IS), which is still active in the region despite suffering serious defeats.
Western powers fear the vote will destabilize an already volatile region, as Iraq's neighbors Iran, Syria and Turkey oppose the vote because an overwhelming "yes" would fuel independence calls in their sizable Kurdish minority communities.
Some experts feel that an immediate declaration of independence is unlikely to happen even if most Kurds vote "yes" and that Turkey's possible sanctions on the KRG will only be temporary, as the two sides have shared commercial interests.
Turkey and the Kurdish region have witnessed an expanding trade tie between the two sides. In the first half of 2017, the mutual business has reached 5 billion U.S. dollars, a 20 percent increase compared with the year before, according to Kurdish data.
"I think that a Turkish military intervention is out of the questions because Turkey also has to deal with the Syrian war at the border. Ankara could decide to close (the only) Habur border gate and to reduce traffic to the zone, but at the end of the road they have major common commercial interests," said veteran Kurdish journalist Mahmut Bozarslan.
【国际英语资讯:Spotlight: Turkey steps up pressure against Iraqi Kurdish independence referendum】相关文章:
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