MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On June 18, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Foreign Relations Department, Minister Falah Mustafa Bakir told Sputnik that Kurdistan hoped for the independence referendum, scheduled for late September, to mark the beginning of a comprehensive dialogue with Baghdad.
"We are encouraged by the visit of a political delegation from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to Baghdad as agreed with their counterparts in Baghdad, and strongly support this effort. We have urged these talks as a matter of urgency. It is the politically correct way to address all pending issues between the two sides," Kubis said in a statement issued in the follow-up to the envoy's meeting with the Kurdistan political delegation on Wednesday.
Kurdistan obtained broad autonomy from Iraq with the adoption of the state’s new constitution in 2005. On June 7, Masoud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, announced his intention to hold an independence referendum in late September, which prompted criticism by Baghdad.
