Politics

UK Minister urges Baghdad to open airports in Kurdistan

A senior United Kingdom official has urged Iraq and Kurdistan to reach an agreement and resolve all outstanding issues while calling on Baghdad to lift an international flight ban on airports in the Region.

Karzan Sulaivany 2018/02/21 15:41

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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – A senior United Kingdom official has urged Iraq and Kurdistan to reach an agreement and resolve all outstanding issues while calling on Baghdad to lift an international flight ban on airports in the Region.

Alistair Burt, the UK Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa, said his government has “been deeply concerned by the tensions in the disputed territories” between Kurdistan and Iraq, adding the UK continues “to monitor the situation closely.”

Relations between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi government deteriorated following Kurdistan’s independence referendum last September which received overwhelming support for secession.

Baghdad refused to recognize the results of the vote and instead imposed several punitive measures on Erbil, including an international flight ban and the use of military force to take over disputed areas.

The October 2017 military takeover of Kirkuk Province by Iraqi forces, with the help of Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi militias, resulted in the forced displacement of at least 180,000 people—mainly Kurds.

The UK wants the KRG and the Iraqi government “to return to substantial negotiations to resolve all outstanding issues…including the status of Kirkuk,” Burt wrote in a letter to a local MP who contacted the Minister on behalf of a Kurdish resident.

Kurdistan 24 received a copy of the letter via email on Tuesday.

“We are urging both sides to reach [an] agreement over federal control and joint management of the borders, and with that a resumption of international flights to Kurdistan’s airports,” he added.

Burt has visited the Kurdistan Region in the past, most recently in September when he met with senior Kurdish officials ahead of the historic referendum.

The KRG “is, and will continue to be, a close political, security, and economic partner of the United Kingdom,” he said, concluding that “a strong and successful Kurdistan” would ensure stability in the region.

Alistair Burt, the UK Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa, discusses his government's stance on the disputes between Erbil and Baghdad.