Kurdistan Region—Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi urges Kurdish leaders not to go ahead with their planned independence referendum, saying the Kurdistan Region is part of Iraq and should remain so. “Kurdistan is part of Iraq and I hope it remains that way,” Abadi said during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. “Disintegration is in no one's interest.” Abadi claimed that Kurdish leaders have told him they do not intend to separate from Iraq. “The Kurdish leaders that I meet say they don't want disintegration and they don't want to separate,” The Iraqi PM said that the Kurds should not go ahead with the referendum on independence, especially as President Masoud Barzani has said that it does not mean an immediate declaration of independence. “I urge them not to go ahead with the referendum,” he said. “If as they say they are not going to abide by its outcome why then hold a referendum, to take people's opinion and not to act on it?” said Abadi. Abadi said that the Kurdistan Region needs Iraq and called on Kurdish leaders to reconcile with that fact. “I urge Kurdish leaders to reconcile their people to this fact that the Kurdistan Region will not progress without Iraq,” he said. “Iraq needs to be united with all its components. Iraq is proud of its Kurdish component.” The Iraqi premier also claimed that the Kurdish region is given the same amount of oil as the rest of Iraq by the central government, wondering why the region cannot afford payment of its civil servants. “The Kurdistan Region gets the same amount of oil as the rest of Iraq,” he claimed. “The Kurdistan Region exports 612,000 barrels a day and that is 15% of Iraq's overall oil production.” “I don't understand why the Peshmerga salaries are not paid. I am astounded by the lack of salary payments in Kurdistan. The oil that is given by the Iraqi government to the Kurdistan Region is money.” Kurdish leaders however have long accused Baghdad of trying to block the Region’s oil exports while freezing the Kurdish share of Iraq’s national budget since early 2014 which has put Erbil under severe financial strain. He meanwhile called on the Kurdish leaders to unite their vision with Iraq for a better and stronger economy. Abbadi also revealed and thanked Germany for a loan of 500 million euros to Iraq to help revamp its economy and financial reforms, adding that German and Iraqi intelligence agencies are cooperating against the threat of terrorism.
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