







ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdistan’s High Referendum Council held a “successful” meeting on Sunday, according to Hemin Hawrami, senior assistant to the president, tweeting that parliament must convene in two weeks.A delegation must also visit Baghdad before August 10, he added, confirming that “all technical preparations are in place to hold the referendum in time” on September 25.The council met in Erbil to discuss and assess practical steps towards holding the referendum in less than two months.All Kurdistan parties except Gorran and the Islamic League (Komal) have attended the meeting of the council headed by President Masoud Barzani.Rudaw has learned that President Barzani told the meeting that the date of the referendum will not be postponed, no matter what.A Turkmen member who was in attendance confirmed Barzani’s stance.“We all are united and insist that the referendum must not be postponed under any circumstances,” Karkhi Alti-Parmaq, head of the Democratic Turkmen Party of Kurdistan, told Rudaw, adding that it is also President Barzani’s instructions.Khalil Ibrahim, from the Islamic Union of Kurdistan (KIU) and a member of the referendum council, said that there are “no plans in our mind” to postpone the referendum.The United States has recently tried through diplomatic means to convince the Kurdish leadership to postpone the historic vote, at least until after Iraqi elections in 2018.Kurdish officials have said they will not give in to US efforts. Kurdistan’s top diplomat Falah Mustafa instead called on the US to become Erbil’s “divorce lawyer” in its separation from Baghdad.A statement released after the meeting said that Kurdistan’s High Election Committee has expressed that they “are fully prepared” to hold the process on September 25.It said that the head of the election body, Handren Mohammed, briefed the meeting on the technical preparation ahead of the referendum.The statement added that the council tasked President Barzani and Vice President Kosrat Rasul to form the delegation that is expected to visit Baghdad.One major issue that has so far hindered the reactivation of the parliament is the term of the Kurdish presidency that expired four years ago.Rudaw has learned that Barzani's party, the KDP, is open to discuss the issue with other Kurdish parties and no longer considers it a red line.The meeting addressed three main issues, Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to the Kurdish presidency, told Rudaw before the meeting: review a report from the Kurdish election body, discuss the structure of the council, and discuss and assess international reaction to the historic vote.A delegation from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) attended the meeting represented by Saadi Ahmad Pira and Mala Bakhtiyar, Hussein said.Senior PUK members last attended the council meeting in early July in their capacity as governmental officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani and Kirkuk Governor Najmaldin Karim.Some PUK officials had previously suggested that the PUK would not attend council meetings until the suspended Kurdistan parliament is reactivated.Kosrat Rasul, from the PUK, was at the Sunday meeting in his capacity as vice president of the Kurdistan Region.

From right to left: President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani, Vice President Kosrat Rasul, and PUK's delegates Mala Bakhtiyar and Saadi Ahmad Pira. They attend a meeting of the referendum council on July 30, 2017. Photo: Rudaw

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The PUK’s Leadership Council on Saturday asked the Kurdish leadership to form a committee tasked with visiting Baghdad and holding talks on the referendum. It said the conversation between Erbil and Baghdad has so far been confined to exchanging views in the media and now is the time to talk face to face.Saad al-Hadithi, spokesperson for the Iraqi Prime Minister, told Rudaw they have agreed to meet in principle, but that the time has not been set. He expects the meeting to take place in the near future.Erbil has set September 25 as the date to hold a referendum on independence in the Kurdistan Region and in territories it calls Kurdistani, or disputed, including Kirkuk.Karim, Kirkuk Governor, said on Friday that his province is ready for the vote, expecting a successful process and a positive result.The PUK is planning to meet with Arabs and Turkmen in Kirkuk to win their support for the referendum by offering incentives such as posts in the local government and the protection of their full rights in the future Kurdistan.A delegation from the PUK is set to meet with Arab representatives in Kirkuk on Sunday.The head of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, Arshad Salihi, told Rudaw on Saturday that they are prepared to discuss the referendum with Kurdish parties, saying that their main demand from the Kurdistan leadership is to exclude disputed areas from the upcoming referendum on independence, especially in areas he called Turkmen.“Particularly our demand is to exclude the Turkmen areas from the referendum circle, because the Turkmen areas are the exclusive geography of the Turkmen, though they are disputed areas,” Salihi said.Following its formation in June, the Referendum Council met for the first time on July 8 during which it decided to dispatch a high-level delegation to Brussels and other countries to explain the position of the Kurdistan Region with regard to the referendum.Three days later, President Barzani headed the Brussels visit. He met with officials from Belgium and some members of the European Parliament with the message that if the EU is unable for any reason to publicly endorse the referendum, it should stay neutral in disputes between Erbil and Baghdad.The EU mission in Iraq released a statement last week on the scheduled referendum saying that “the EU reiterates its steadfast support for Iraq's unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity.”The statement added that “unilateral actions” by Erbil to call the referendum run counter to the constructive dialogue needed within the framework of the Iraqi constitution, and it exposes both Baghdad and Erbil “to additional, unnecessary pressures at this critical time, including regional repercussions, and are therefore counterproductive.”Gorran and Komal have so far refused to attend meetings related to the referendum. The two parties have said that the Kurdistan parliament, that has not convened since October 2015, has to first be reactivated and then pass a law to call the referendum.Barzani's KDP closed the parliament after tensions rose between it and Gorran that year.The KDP has offered an "unconditional" offer to Gorran aimed at reactivating the parliament that secures the return of the parliament speaker Yousif Mohammed, a Gorran member.Gorran, which elected a new leader last week after the death of the party's founder, Nawshirwan Mustafa, has yet to respond.Last updated at 2:52 p.m. on July 31, 2017