Iraq to halt international flights to Kurdistan Region

Iraq's principal authorities is to suspend global flights to and from the Kurdistan place, as pressure mounts after Monday's independence referendum.
Baghdad has said only home flights might be approved from 18:00 (15:00 GMT) until the Kurds surrender manage of Irbil and Sulaimaniya airports.
The Kurdistan nearby authorities has said such a ban might be "unlawful".
prime Minister Haider al-Abadi desires the referendum, wherein ninety two% of electorate subsidized secession, to be annulled.
Kurdish leaders insist the referendum was valid and they now have a mandate to start negotiations with Baghdad and neighbouring international locations.



The Kurdistan local authorities warned in a declaration on Thursday that any ban on global flights to Irbil and Sulaimaniya might be "absolutely illegal and unconstitutional" and quantity to "collective punishment towards the Kurds".
officers said the airports had been already challenge to the Iraq Civil Aviation Authority and that any restrictions could affect the conflict in opposition to so-called Islamic state (IS).
Kurdish Peshmerga forces have driven the jihadist group out of big parts of northern Iraq for the reason that 2014 with air and ground help from a US-led coalition



"we've an worldwide network here, so this isn't going to be simplest towards Kurdish people," Irbil airport's director, Talar Faiq Salih, told the BBC on Thursday.
"we've got a huge number of refugees which are the use of this airport, and we are used to be a bridge among Syria and the UN to ship the humanitarian aid to those places. And we are hosting coalition forces here, so this airport is supposed to be for the whole thing," he introduced.
but, regional carriers - together with Turkish airlines, EgyptAir and Lebanon's middle East airways - have stated they will suspend flights at Baghdad's request.
The KRG also vowed to take felony measures to counter latest choices by means of the Iraqi parliament, which on Wednesday requested Mr Abadi to ship troops to the oil-rich Kirkuk area and different disputed areas presently controlled by means of Kurdish forces.
Turkey and Iran, that have Kurdish minorities and are fiercely opposed to Iraqi Kurds gaining independence, have also expanded the stress on the KRG.
Mr Abadi's workplace stated on Thursday that Turkish high Minister Binali Yildirim had agreed to deal completely with the critical government over the exports of crude oil. that could result in a key pipeline from the Kirkuk area, which affords the KRG with extra than 80% of its profits, being cut off.
The Turkish and Iranian militaries have additionally participated in joint physical games close to their borders with the Kurdistan location in current days.



however, the BBC's Mark Lowen in Irbil says there is no appetite for sparkling warfare.
Turkey nonetheless depends on the oil pumped from Kirkuk, Western allies are urging restraint and the maximum possibly next step is talk, our correspondent provides.
Kurds are the fourth-biggest ethnic group within the middle East but they have never received a permanent state state.
In Iraq, where they make up an envisioned 15-20% of the populace of 37 million, Kurds confronted many years of repression before obtaining autonomy in 1991.