‘Time has come’ for statehood referendum — Kurd leader

Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani declares that the “time has come” for the country’s Kurds to hold a referendum on statehood, a move likely to raise tensions with Baghdad.

But even if the various political challenges to independence are resolved, the major economic problems the region faces due to low oil prices are another bar to Kurdish independence.

“The time has come and the conditions are now suitable for the people to make a decision through a referendum on their future,” Barzani says in a statement released Wednesday.

“This referendum would not necessarily lead to (an) immediate declaration of statehood, but rather to know the will and opinion of the people of Kurdistan about their future,” says Barzani, who has remained in power despite the expiration of his term as president.

Barzani, who has made similar calls in the past, does not specify when the vote would take place.

— AFP