Referendum 'lacks legitimacy'

The Trump administration has said it does not recognise the independence referendum in Iraq's Kurdish region – as tensions flare between the regional government and Baghdad.

Iraqi Kurds overwhelmingly voted in favour of independence in a vote earlier this week. However, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement "the vote and the results lack legitimacy" and that the US will "continue to support a united, federal, democratic and prosperous Iraq".

The Trump administration maintains that a fractured Iraq could further destabilise the region and make it more difficult to fight terrorism.

Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraq's Kurdish region, is said to have warned that the Kurds may be forced to retaliate if the central government continues to aggressively respond to its referendum.

"We want this to be a peaceful transition but if Baghdad decides not, there is a lot we can also do," said Barzani's spokesperson, Vahal Ali, according to The New York Times.

So far, Iraq's central government has mandated that all international flights to and from Erbil in the Kurdistan Region be suspended and has warned that land borders might also be closed.

Meanwhile, Iranian and Iraqi central government forces are to hold joint military exercises near their borders, Iran's state television reported yesterday, as part of Tehran's effort to support Baghdad after the Kurdish independence referendum.

State television quoted a military spokesman as saying the decision to hold the war games in the next few days was taken at a meeting of top Iranian military commanders which also "agreed on measures to establish border security and receive Iraqi forces that are to be stationed at border posts".

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan yesterday said Iraqi Kurdish authorities would pay the price for an independence referendum which was widely opposed by foreign powers.

"They are not forming an independent state, they are opening a wound in the region to twist the knife in," Erdogan told members of his ruling AK Party in the eastern Turkish city of Erzurum.