Leader’s aide warns of new US, Israeli plot to partition Iraq

A senior Iranian official says a highly controversial referendum of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region is a new US-Israeli plot in the Middle East to partition the country, warning that the Kurds will suffer as a result of the plan.

“After the defeat of Daesh [terrorist group] in Syria and Iraq, Kurdistan’s referendum will result in escalation of tensions and crisis in the region,” Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top military advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said on Monday, Press TV reported.

The high-ranking Iranian official added that even if the Kurdish people voted “yes” for the region, Iraq’s central government, parliament and military forces would not accept the result.

Rahim Safavi emphasized that Iran has expressed its objection to the plebiscite by closing its airspace to all flights to and from the Kurdish region in Iraq.

Keyvan Khosravi, a spokesman for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), said on Sunday Iran had closed its airspace to all flights to and from the semi-autonomous Kurdish Region in Iraq at the request of the country's federal government.

“At the request of the central government of Iraq, all flights from Iran to Sulaymaniyah and Erbil airports as well as all flights through our country’s airspace originating in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region have been halted,” Khosravi said.

However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that the country’s border with Iraqi Kurdistan remained open despite its referendum.

“The land borders between Iran and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq are open and these borders have not been closed,” the ministry said.

It added that only air borders between Iran and this region are currently closed.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani held separate phone calls with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and his Turkish and Russian counterparts, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Vladimir Putin over the past two days and discussed the vote.

Rouhani, Abadi, Erdogan and Putin voiced their opposition to the vote and said they support Iraq’s territorial integrity and national unity.

SS