"We hope we can live in one country. But if we can’t live with our Kurdish brothers in one country, let them achieve their rights and become a beloved neighbor,” Saleh Mutleg told Rudaw on Friday.
He is the head of the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue.
“Although I myself don’t believe in going in this direction, but if this is the desire of the majority of Kurds, then we will respect this wish.”
The Kurdistan Region will hold a referendum on independence on September 25, a vote that will also take place in the Kurdistani or disputed areas claimed by both Erbil and Baghdad.
Officials in Washington this week criticized the timing of the vote.
“We do not think the referendum should happen in September,” said Brett McGurk, US envoy to the global anti-ISIS coalition. He urged all parties to remain focused on finally defeating ISIS in Iraq and stressed that holding a referendum in disputed areas could be “destabilizing.”
Mutleg agreed that the timing is not right. “It is inappropriate for our Kurdish brothers to propose this project while we are currently fighting ISIS,” he said.
He also warned Kurds against “insisting on taking” the disputed areas “because this will consequently drag us into problems.”
