ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) stated that Iranian state news misrepresented remarks made by the Special Representative of the United Nations General (SRSG) for Iraq regarding the UN’s stance towards the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum.
IRNA reported on Wednesday that SRSG Jan Kubis had said the referendum is not legal in an exclusive interview.
“Referendum for statehood in Iraqi Kurdistan region is not legal and has not been included in the Iraq constitution,” IRNA had quoted Kubis as saying.
A Kurdistani independence referendum delegation has been meeting with top Iraqi and foreign officials in Baghdad this week.
UNAMI called the IRNA quote a “misrepresentation” and released the “almost verbatim” responses, as they recorded it.
“First of all, the message from the Security Council and the leadership of the Secretariat is to both Baghdad central government and the government of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to talk, to negotiate, and to find a solution or solutions that would address all the issues that they have of the agenda through negotiations, including how to deal with the issue of the referendum,” UNAMI stated Kubis had said.
The United Nations has urged dialogue between Erbil and Baghdad to resolve outstanding issues.
“We always say, because that is the way how we operate on any questions, that the point of departure must be to respect fully the Constitution of the country and the laws of country,” the UNAMI statement reported Kubis as saying.
The Kurdistan Region has announced plans to hold a referendum on independence on September 25 and is visiting the Iraqi capital to take meetings.
The delegation visited Baghdad on Monday, and plans to stay there until next Monday. They have met with Iraqi and foreign officials in the Iraqi capital, including with members of the Alliance separately.
Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi, VP Nouri al-Maliki, and Iraq’s parliament speaker, among others, said that any step taken by the Kurdistan Region, including the referendum, should have constitutional backing
Today a source told Rudaw that there is “a small chance” that the Kurdistan Region would agree to postpone the referendum until after the Iraqi elections if Baghdad gives guarantees to give the go ahead for the referendum at a later date.
The delegation is expected to meet once again this weekend with Maliki’s National Alliance and resume negotiations.
Each side is preparing their stances between now and the meeting later this week, the source said, adding that Baghdad should also agree to implement a number of articles of the Iraqi constitution that the Kurdistan Region say have been violated by Baghdad, chief among them Article 140, and the budget cut.
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