Arab league calls for dialogue after Kurdish vote

IRBIL, Iraq — The Arab League is calling on Iraqis to renounce their differences and open comprehensive dialogue to avoid clashes, following a controversial independence referendum held by the country’s Kurds.

Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, chief of the Cairo-based pan-Arab organization, says in a statement: “It is still possible to contain the repercussions of this step if all concerned parties exercise wisdom and responsibility and conduct themselves inside the parameters of the Iraqi state.”

The interests of Iraq, he adds, “will be best served in the framework of a unified, federal and democratic Iraq.”

While the referendum is not binding and not expected to immediately lead to independence, it has shaken the region, eliciting condemnations from Iraq’s neighbors as well as the United States and the United Nations.

— AP