SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Baghdad ends air blockade of Iraqi Kurdistan
Baghdad, March 13 (AFP) Mar 13, 2018
Iraqi authorities said Tuesday they were lifting a nearly six-month air blockade imposed on Iraqi Kurdistan in response to its holding of an independence referendum.

Federal authorities imposed the blockade in September after Iraqi Kurdistan voted overwhelmingly for independence in a non-binding referendum rejected as illegal by the central government.

It was extended in December for two months and renewed in February for another possible three months.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a statement the airports of Kurdish regional capital Arbil and second city Sulaimaniyah would again be "open to international flights".

The decision to lift the flight ban was made "after local Kurdish authorities accepted that central authorities retake control of the two airports," the statement said.

The formal lifting of the blockade will take place in the next few days, Abadi's spokesman Saad al-Hadithi told AFP.

"This will depend on how long it takes for employees of the central government to start working in the airports," he said.

Iraqi Kurdish prime minister Nechirvan Barzani told a press conference shortly after the announcement that he "thanked Baghdad and Prime Minister Abadi because it is he who decided to reopen the airports".

United Nations special representative to Iraq Jan Kubis welcomed the move as a "significant positive step that is certain to boost the atmosphere of partnership cooperation" between the two sides.

Since the flight ban went into force, all Kurdistan-bound international flights have been rerouted to Baghdad, which also imposed entry visas on foreigners wishing to visit the Kurdish region.

The flight ban was part of a battery of penalties inflicted on the Kurds as Baghdad sought to nullify the independence poll, with federal forces also seizing disputed oil-rich regions.

Baghdad demanded to take over passport control in airports in Kurdistan as well as customs issues.

Arbil had already agreed to that and control of airport security was the last stumbling block, an official told AFP at the end of February when the blockade was extended for another three months.

Abadi met with a Kurdish delegation on Tuesday, a senior Kurdish official confirmed to AFP on condition of anonymity, and the two sides agreed that the issues of security and passports would be entrusted to Baghdad.

Baghdad and Arbil have been engaged in a political and territorial struggle since the September 25 independence referendum.

Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces took control of the northern province of Kirkuk, home to key oilfields, in June 2014 after federal forces withdrew in the face of an offensive by the Islamic State group.

Late last year, following the failed independence push, federal forces recaptured the oilfields, severing a key financial lifeline for the Kurds.

This month the Iraqi parliament approved the 2018 budget in the absence of Kurdish lawmakers who boycotted the meeting to protest a cut in the amount allocated to their autonomous region.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
NASA raises chance for asteroid to hit moon
BlackSky plans new satellite network for large-scale AI-driven Earth observation
Fish biofluorescence evolved independently over 100 times in evolutionary history

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Europe's lithium quest hampered by China and lack of cash
ArcelorMittal stops 'green' steel projects in Germany
Thailand credits prey releases for 'extraordinary' tiger recovery

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Trump 'Golden Dome' plan tricky and expensive: experts
France finds cash for 'strategic asset' satellite firm Eutelsat
British FM says 'window now exists' for diplomacy with Iran

24/7 News Coverage
How did life survive 'Snowball Earth'? In ponds, study suggests
Arctic warming spurs growth of carbon-soaking peatlands
Climate change could double summer rainfall in the Alps: study



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.