Tag Archives: Middle East

Pakistani police fire tear gas at Islamists blockading capital

Pakistani police fire tear gas at Islamists blockading capital

By Asif Shahzad and Kay Johnson

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani police used tear gas and watercannon, and fought running battles with stone-throwing Islamist activists, as they moved to clear a sit-in by the religious hard-liners who have blocked the main routes into the capital of Islamabad for more than two weeks.

The protests have spread to other main cities, including Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar.

The clashes began on Saturday when police launched an operation involving some 4,000 officers to disperse around 1,000 activists from Tehreek-e-Labaik, a new hard-line Islamist political party, and break up their camp, police official Saood Tirmizi told Reuters.

Dozens of protesters were arrested, Tirmizi said, and hospitals reported dozens of people were being treated for injuries.

The mass protest, plus the recent gains of two new Islamist parties in Pakistan, demonstrated the religious right’s gathering strength ahead of what are expected to be tumultuous elections next year.

Television footage showed a police vehicle on fire, heavy curtains of smoke and fires burning in the streets as officers in heavy riot gear advanced. Protesters, some wearing gas masks, fought back in scattered battles across empty highways and surrounding neighborhoods.

“We are in our thousands. We will not leave. We will fight until end,” Tehreek-e-Labaik party spokesman Ejaz Ashrafi told Reuters by telephone from the scene.

By midday, TV coverage had been cut off and private channels were off the air by orders of the official media regulator.

The protesters have paralyzed daily life in the capital, and have defied court orders to disband, demanding the firing of the minister of law.

Tehreek-e-Labaik blames the minister, Zahid Hamid, for changes to an electoral oath that it says amounts to blasphemy. The government puts the issue down to a clerical error.

“Death to blasphemers” is a central rallying cry for Tehreek-e-Laibak, which was born out of a protest movement lionizing Mumtaz Qadri, a bodyguard of the governor of Punjab province who gunned down his boss in 2011 over his call to reform strict blasphemy laws.

The party, which advocates strict rule by Islamic Sharia law, won a surprisingly strong 7.6 percent of the vote in a by-election in Peshawar last month.

Since Tehreek-e-Labaik began its sit-in, the government has blocked several roads with shipping containers to corral the protesters, but that has caused hours-long traffic jams in and around the capital.

The government had tried to negotiate an end to the sit-in, fearing violence during a crackdown similar to 2007, when clashes between authorities and supporters of a radical Islamabad mosque led to the deaths of more than 100 people.

By late morning, Tehreek-e-Labaik supporters were coming out on the streets in other Pakistani cities in support of the Islamabad protesters.

About 500 demonstrators blocked several main roads in Karachi, the southern port that is Pakistan’s largest city, a Reuters witness said. Police fired tear gas to try to disperse them from a main road near Karachi’s airport.

In the eastern city of Lahore, party supporters blocked three roads into the city, provincial government spokesman Malik Ahmad Khan said.

“We want them to disperse peacefully. Otherwise we have other options open,” he said. “We don’t want to use force, but we will if there is no other option left.”

In Islamabad, police official Aftab Ahmad said officers were using restraint and denied media reports that rubber bullets were being fired.

However, Labaik spokesman Ashrafi said “several of our workers have got rubber bullet injuries” and also asserted police had fired live rounds, which police denied.

(Writing by Kay Johnson; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Christian Schmollinger)

Islamic State beheads 15 of its own fighters: Afghan official

Islamic State beheads 15 of its own fighters: Afghan official

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Islamic State beheaded 15 of its own fighters due to infighting in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar, officials said, while a separate suicide attack on Thursday tore into a crowd in the provincial capital, Jalalabad, killing at least eight.

The two incidents underline the insecurity and lawlessness across Afghanistan, where thousands of civilians have been killed or wounded this year amid unrelenting violence involving militant groups including Islamic State and the Taliban.

In a bloody day for the province, a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing at least eight people at a meeting of supporters of a police commander who was sacked for illegal land grabbing.

There was no claim of responsibility and no immediate indication of who was behind the attack on the crowd in Jalalabad, which had gathered to demand the reinstatement of the commander, who survived the attack.

A spokesman for the Jalalabad hospital confirmed eight people had been killed and 15 wounded.

Nangarhar, on the porous border with Pakistan, has become a stronghold for Islamic State, generally known as Daesh in Afghanistan, which has grown to become one of the country’s most dangerous militant groups since it appeared around the start of 2015.

Attaullah Khogyani, the provincial governor’s spokesman, said the 15 Islamic State fighters were executed after a bout of infighting in the group, which has become notorious for its brutality. The killings occurred in the Surkh Ab bazaar of Achin district.

Further details were not available and there was no confirmation from Islamic State, whose local branch is known as Islamic State in Khorasan, an old name for the area that includes modern Afghanistan.

The Taliban and Islamic State have frequently fought each other in Nangarhar and both have been targeted by sustained U.S. air strikes.

But the exact nature of the relationship between the two groups is little understood. There have been isolated incidents in Afghanistan in which the fighters of both appear to have cooperated.

Afghan intelligence documents reviewed by Reuters this year showed security officials believe Islamic State is present in nine provinces, from Nangarhar and Kunar in the east to Jawzjan, Faryab and Badakhshan in the north and Ghor in the central west.

(Reporting by Ahmad Sultan; Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by James Mackenzie and Clarence Fernandez)

Iraq launches operation to clear desert near Syria of Islamic State

Iraq launches operation to clear desert near Syria of Islamic State

By Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi forces launched an operation on Thursday to clear the desert bordering Syria of Islamic State in a final push to rid Iraq of the militant group, the military said.

Troops from the Iraqi army and mainly Shi’ite paramilitaries known as Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) were taking part in the campaign against militants hiding in a large strip of border land, Iraqi military officials said.

“The objective behind the operation is to prevent remaining Daesh groups from melting into the desert region and using it as a base for future attacks,” said army colonel Salah Kareem, referring to Islamic State by an Arabic acronym.

Islamic State fighters who ruled over millions of people in both Iraq and Syria since proclaiming their “caliphate” in 2014, have been largely defeated in both countries this year, pushed out of all population centers to empty desert near the border.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday Islamic State had been defeated from a military perspective, but he would declare final victory only after the militants were routed in the desert. [nL8N1NR57C]

In the latest operation, Iraqi forces had “purified” 77 villages and exerted control over a bridge and an airport, operations commander Lieutenant General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah said in a statement. Over 5,800 squared kilometers had been “purified,” he added.

On Friday Iraqi forces captured the border town of Rawa, the last remaining town under Islamic State control. Iraqi army commanders say the military campaign will continue until all the frontier with Syria is secured to prevent Islamic State from launching cross border attacks.

“We will completely secure the desert from all terrorist groups of Daesh and declare Iraq clean of those germs,” said army Brigadier General Shakir Kadhim.

LANDMINES, BOMBS

Army officials said troops advancing through sprawling desert towards the Syria border are facing landmines and roadside bombs placed by retreating militants.

“We need to clean scattered villages from terrorists to make sure they no longer operate in the desert area with Syria,” said army Lieutenant-Colonel Ahmed Fairs.

Iraqi military helicopters provided cover for the advancing troops and destroyed at least three vehicles used by militants as they were trying to flee a village in the western desert, said the army officer.

Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate has swiftly collapsed since July, when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces captured Mosul, the group’s de facto capital in Iraq, after a grueling battle that had lasted nine months.

Driven also from its other main bastion in Syria’s Raqqa, Islamic State has since been gradually squeezed into an ever-shrinking pocket of desert straddling the Syria-Iraq frontier, pursued by a range of enemies that include most regional states and global powers.

The group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is believed to be hiding in the stretch of desert which runs along the border of both countries.

(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Nick Macfie, William Maclean and Peter Graff)

Saudi Crown Prince calls Iran leader ‘new Hitler’: NYT

Saudi Crown Prince calls Iran leader 'new Hitler': NYT

DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince called the Supreme Leader of Iran “the new Hitler of the Middle East” in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday, sharply escalating the war of words between the arch-rivals.

The Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran back rival sides in wars and political crises throughout the region.

Mohammed bin Salman, who is also Saudi defense minister in the U.S.-allied oil giant kingdom, suggested the Islamic Republic’s alleged expansion under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei needed to be confronted.

“But we learned from Europe that appeasement doesn’t work. We don’t want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East,” the paper quoted him as saying.

Tensions soared this month when Lebanon’s Saudi-allied Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned in a television broadcast from Riyadh, citing the influence of Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and risks to his life.

Hezbollah called the move an act of war engineered by Saudi authorities, an accusation they denied.

Hariri has since suspended his resignation.

Saudi Arabia has launched thousands of air strikes in a 2-1/2-year-old war in neighboring Yemen to defeat the Iranian-aligned Houthi movement that seized broad swaths of the country.

Salman told the Times that the war was going in its favor and that its allies controlled 85 percent of Yemen’s territory.

The Houthis, however, still retain the main population centers despite the war effort by a Saudi-led military coalition which receives intelligence and refueling for its warplanes by the United States. Some 10,000 people have died in the conflict.

The group launched a ballistic missile toward Riyadh’s main airport on Nov. 4, which Saudi Arabis decried as an act of war by Tehran.

Bin Salman said in May that the kingdom would make sure any future struggle between the two countries “is waged in Iran”.

For his part, Khamenei has referred to the House of Saud as an “accursed tree”, and Iranian officials have accused the kingdom of spreading terrorism.

(Reporting By Noah Browning; Editing by Michael Perry and Ralph Boulton)

Aid agencies say Yemen blockade remains, Egeland calls it ‘collective punishment’

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) – The Saudi-led coalition’s blockade of Yemen, which has cut off food imports to a population where 7 million people are on the brink of famine, is “illegal collective punishment” of civilians, a prominent aid official said on Thursday.

Major agencies said aid was still blocked a day after the Saudi-led military coalition said it would let humanitarian supplies in.

The U.S.-backed coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen said on Wednesday it would allow aid in through the port of Hodeidah, as well as U.N. flights to the capital Sanaa, more than two weeks after blockading the country.

“We have not yet had any movement as of now,” said Jens Laerke, spokesman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance.

Jan Egeland, a former U.N. aid chief who now heads the Norwegian Refugee Council, said of the blockade: “In my view this is illegal collective punishment.”

Egeland, whose group helps 1 million Yemenis, welcomed the coalition announcement as a “step in the right direction”, but added: “We only have it in writing now and haven’t seen it happen.”

The coalition closed air, land and sea access on Nov. 6 to stop the flow of arms to the Houthis from Iran. The action came after Saudi Arabia intercepted a missile fired toward Riyadh. Iran has denied supplying weapons.

“Sending a missile in the direction of Riyadh is really very bad. But those who are suffering from the blockade had nothing to do with this missile,” Egeland told Reuters while in Geneva.

“Even if both the flights and humanitarian shipments will go through now, it is not solving the underlying crisis that a country that needs 90 percent of its goods imported is not getting in commercial food or fuel.”

Houthi authorities who control the capital Sanaa were also imposing restrictions on access for aid workers, he said.

The United Nations says some 7 million Yemenis are on the brink of famine and 945,000 have been infected since April with cholera. More than 2,200 people have died.

U.N. officials have submitted requests to the coalition for deliveries via Hodeidah and Sanaa, and the “hope and expectation” was that the vital aid pipelines would re-open on Friday, the U.N.’s Laerke said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was vital to get commercial traffic resumed.

“Yemenis will need more than aid in order to survive the crisis and ward off famine,” spokeswoman Iolanda Jaquemet said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Russia-hosted summit could be decisive for Syria peace: Erdogan

Russia-hosted summit could be decisive for Syria peace: Erdogan

By Denis Pinchuk

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) – A three-way summit on Wednesday between the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey could produce decisive steps toward ending the bloodshed in Syria, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said at the start of their talks.

The summit, hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is a rare occasion bringing together the leaders of Russia and Iran — who back Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad — around a table with Erdogan, who has supported Assad’s opponents.

In opening remarks at the summit in the southern Russian resort of Sochi, Putin, Erdogan and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani spoke of an opening for peace in Syria now that Islamic State has been pushed out of its last major stronghold there.

“The point we have reached is important, but not enough,” Erdogan told the gathering, also attended by military commanders and foreign ministers from the three countries.

“It is critical for all parties to contribute to a permanent and acceptable political solution for the people of Syria,” he said. “This summit is aimed at results, I believe critical decisions will be taken.”

As a prelude to the summit, Putin earlier this week hosted Assad at his residence in Sochi. It was the only time the Syrian leader is known to have left Syria since his last visit to Russia, two years ago.

Putin also made telephone calls in the past 24 hours to other leaders with influence in Syria, including U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, as part of Moscow’s drive to build an international consensus over a peace deal to end the six-year conflict.

“A NEW STAGE”

“We can say with certainty that we have reached a new stage, opening up the possibility to launch a real political process towards a peace deal,” Putin told the gathering.

“Compromises and concessions will be needed on all sides … including (from) the Syrian government,” Putin said.

He said the focus of peace efforts should be the convocation of a congress bringing together all of Syria’s ethnic groups.

Russia has offered to host such a congress in Sochi, but attempts to agree a date have so far foundered, in part because Turkey raised objections to the presence of some Kurdish groups.

Iran’s Rouhani used his remarks at the summit to rail against the presence of foreign forces in Syria, an apparent reference to the United States and Tehran’s arch regional rival Saudi Arabia, which alongside Turkey have backed Assad’s foes.

“There is no excuse for the presence of foreign troops in Syria without the approval of its legitimate government,” Rouhani said.

“The Syrian nation will not allow any interference of foreigners in their state affairs and will confront any move that harms Syria’s integrity, independence and unity,” he said.

Iran’s military is also present in Syria, alongside Russian troops and Hezbollah, the pro-Iran Lebanese militia. They say that does not amount to foreign interference because they are in Syria at Assad’s invitation.

(Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Parisa Hafezi in ANKARA; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Iraq to declare final victory over Islamic State after desert campaign

Iraq to declare final victory over Islamic State after desert campaign

By Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday Islamic State had been defeated from a military perspective but he would only declare final victory after IS militants were routed in the desert.

Iraqi forces on Friday captured the border town of Rawa, the last remaining town under Islamic State control, signaling the collapse of the group’s “caliphate” proclaimed after it overran much of Iraq’s north and west in 2014.

Securing desert and border areas is what remains in the campaign against Islamic State, military commanders say.

“From a military perspective, we have ended the presence of Daesh in Iraq,” Abadi said while addressing a weekly news conference, referring to Islamic State by an Arabic acronym.

“God willing we will announce very soon after the end of the purification operations victory over Daesh in Iraq.”

Abadi’s comments came as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared the end of Islamic State while a senior Iranian military commander thanked the “thousands of martyrs” killed in operations organized by Iran to defeat the militant group in Syria and Iraq.

Political disagreements will pave the way for the Sunni militant group to carry out attacks, however, Abadi said. He was referring to the central Baghdad government’s dispute with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government over the latter’s declaration of independence following a Sept. 25 referendum.

“Any disagreement between political factions will encourage Daesh to carry out terrorist attacks,” he said. “I call on our Kurdish brothers to avoid fighting.”

Hours before Abadi spoke, at least 23 people were killed and 60 wounded when a suicide bomber set off a truck bomb near a crowded marketplace in the northern Iraqi town of Tuz Khurmatu, south of the oil city of Kirkuk.

Abadi praised a federal court verdict that ruled the Kurdish referendum unconstitutional and called on Kurds not to resort to violence.

Iraq’s Supreme Federal Court ruled on Monday that the referendum was unconstitutional and the results void, bolstering Baghdad’s hand in a stand-off with the Kurdish region watched closely by neighbouring Turkey and Iran.

“I hail the federal court’s decision to void the Kurdish region’s referendum,” he said.

Kurds voted overwhelmingly to break away from Iraq in the referendum, defying Baghdad and alarming neighboring Turkey and Iran who have their own Kurdish minorities.

The Iraqi government responded to the referendum by seizing Kurdish-held Kirkuk and other territory disputed between the Kurds and the central government. It also banned direct flights to Kurdistan and demanded control over border crossings.

(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; editing by Mark Heinrich and William Maclean)

Syrian opposition conference starts in Riyadh after key resignations

Syrian opposition conference starts in Riyadh after key resignations

By Stephen Kalin

RIYADH (Reuters) – A Syrian opposition meeting began in Riyadh on Wednesday in a bid to unify the group’s position ahead of peace talks backed by the United Nations to end the country’s six-year civil war.

Saudi Arabia backs the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) group whose leader, former Syrian prime minister Riyad Hijab, resigned on Monday without explanation.

The summit comes after a surprise visit by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Russia a day earlier to meet President Vladimir Putin, who later discussed the conflict with U.S. President Donald Trump and other Middle East leaders.

Assad has made major gains against opposition forces and Islamic State militants with the help of Russia as well as Iran, the arch-rival of Saudi Arabia, which backs Syrian rebels and had long maintained that Assad should have no role in any transition to bring the war there to an end.

U.N. peace talks mediator Staffan de Mistura urged the opposition figures gathered at a five-star hotel in Riyadh to have the “hard discussions” necessary to reach a “common line”.

“A strong unified team is a creative partner in Geneva and we need that, one who can actually explore more than one way to arrive to the goals that we need to have,” he said in opening remarks.

It was not immediately clear how Hijab’s absence would affect the talks. Several opposition figures said he had taken an uncompromising line that rejected a role for Assad in a U.N. sponsored Geneva based peace process.

Some opposition members have hinted that the new communique would drop the long standing demand by the Riyadh based main opposition, referring to the next round of U.N.-sponsored talks.

The summit, which Saudi Arabia called “expanded”, was opened to more than 140 opposition figures from the Turkey-based coalition and mainstream Free Syrian Army factions as well as independents including about a dozen women.

The HNC has represented the Syrian opposition at previous Geneva talks, while a number of other political opposition groups and figures backed by other countries including Russia and Egypt also exist.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said the only solution to the conflict was through a consensus that would achieve the demands of the Syrian people.

“There is no solution to the crisis without a Syrian consensus that would achieve the demands of the Syrian people on the basis of Geneva 1 and (U.N. Security Council) resolution 2254,” he said.

The Moscow group of Syrian political activists led by a former deputy prime minister Qadri Jamil said they turned down an invitation to attend the conference, accusing the members of the main HNC opposition of thwarting efforts to set up a single delegation.

“We consider the effort of some of the opposition to exploit the meeting as a platform for their own political ends goes against Saudi Arabia’s efforts to form a unified delegation,” Jamil said in a statement.

Russia has led an campaign to push for the merger of the Moscow group into a single delegation with the HNC. The main opposition body says it is a stooge of Moscow to sow divisions within their ranks.

The opposition meeting is set to last until Friday, when a joint statement is expected. Several rounds of U.N. talks in Geneva between the Damascus government and the opposition have made little progress since the Syria conflict erupted in 2011.

(Reporting by Dahlia Nehme and Reuters TV Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi; Writing by Stephen Kalin and Sami Aboudi; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

Iran’s president declares end of Islamic State

Iran's president declares end of Islamic State

By Babak Dehghanpisheh

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared the end of Islamic State on Tuesday while a senior military commander thanked the “thousands of martyrs” killed in operations organized by Iran to defeat the militant group in Syria and Iraq.

“Today with God’s guidance and the resistance of people in the region we can say that this evil has either been lifted from the head of the people or has been reduced,” Rouhani said in an address broadcast live on state TV.

“Of course the remnants will continue but the foundation and roots have been destroyed.”

Major General Qassem Soleimani, a senior commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, also said Islamic State had been defeated, in a message sent on Tuesday to Iran’s supreme leader which was published on the Guards’ news site, Sepah News.

Iranian media have often carried video and pictures of Soleimani, who commands the Quds Force, the branch of the Guards responsible for operations outside Iran, at frontline positions in battles against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The Revolutionary Guards, a powerful military force which also oversees an economic empire worth billions of dollars, has been fighting in support of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and the central government in Baghdad for several years.

More than a thousand members of the Guards, including senior commanders, have been killed in Syria and Iraq.

The Syrian conflict has entered a new phase with the capture at the weekend by government forces and their allies of Albu Kamal, the last significant town in Syria held by Islamic State, where Soleimani was pictured by Iranian media last week.

Iraqi forces captured the border town of Rawa, the last remaining town there under Islamic State control, on Friday, signaling the collapse of the so-called caliphate it proclaimed in 2014 across vast swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory.

Most of the forces battling Islamic State in Syria and Iraq have said they expect it to go underground and turn to a guerrilla insurgency using sleeper cells and bombings.

In his address on Tuesday, Rouhani accused the United States and Israel of supporting Islamic State. He also criticized Arab powers in the region and asked why they had not spoken out about civilian deaths in Yemen’s conflict.

The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and other Arab states criticized Iran and its Lebanese Shi’ite ally Hezbollah at an emergency meeting in Cairo on Sunday, calling for a united front to counter Iranian interference.

Soleimani acknowledged the multinational force Iran has helped organize in the fight against Islamic State and thanked the “thousands of martyrs and wounded Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian, Afghan and Pakistani defenders of the shrine”.

He pointed to the “decisive role” played by Hezbollah and the group’s leader Seyed Hassan Nasrallah and highlighted the thousands of Iraqi Shi’ite volunteers, known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces, who have fought Islamic State in Iraq.

On websites linked to the Guards, members of the organization killed in Syria and Iraq are praised as protectors of Shi’ite holy sites and labeled “defenders of the shrine”.

Rouhani is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan in Russia on Wednesday to discuss the Syria conflict.

The Revolutionary Guards initially kept quiet about their military role in both Syria and Iraq but have become more outspoken about it as casualties have mounted. They frame their engagement as an existential struggle against the Sunni Muslim fighters of Islamic State, who see Shi’ites, the majority of Iran’s population, as apostates.

Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump gave the U.S. Treasury Department authority to impose economic sanctions on Guards members in response to what Washington calls its efforts to destabilize and undermine its opponents in the Middle East.

(Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Iraqi court rules Kurdish independence vote unconstitutional

Iraqi court rules Kurdish independence vote unconstitutional

By Ahmed Rasheed and Raya Jalabi

BAGHDAD/ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) – Iraq’s Supreme Federal Court ruled on Monday a Sept. 25 Kurdish independence referendum was unconstitutional and the results void, strengthening Baghdad’s hand in a stand-off with the Kurdish region watched closely by neighboring Turkey and Iran.

The Kurdistan Regional Government did not directly say whether it accepted the effective cancellation of the vote, but its new prime minister called for a third party to oversee talks between Iraq’s central government and the Kurds.

The KRG also called on the international community — including the United Nations, European Union and non-governmental organizations — to intervene and help lift what it called “restrictive” sanctions imposed by Baghdad in retaliation for the referendum.

Kurds voted overwhelmingly to break away from Iraq in the referendum, defying the central government in Baghdad and alarming neighboring Turkey and Iran who have their own Kurdish minorities.

“The Federal Court issued the decision to consider the Kurdish region’s referendum unconstitutional and this ruling is final,” a court spokesman said. “The power of this ruling should now cancel all the results of the referendum.”

The court is responsible for settling disputes between Iraq’s central government and its regions, including Kurdistan. The verdict is not subject to appeal.

A statement from Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said: “We call upon everybody to … avoid taking any step which violates the constitution and law.”

FLIGHTS BANNED

The court had ruled on Nov. 6 that no region or province can secede. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said last week it would respect that verdict, signaling a new phase in efforts to restart negotiations over the region’s future.

The Iraqi government responded to the Kurdish independence referendum by seizing the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk and other territory disputed between the Kurds and the central government. It also banned direct flights to Kurdistan and demanded control over border crossings.

Long-serving Kurdish president Masoud Barzani stepped down over the affair and the regional government led by his nephew Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani has tried to negotiate an end to the confrontation.

In a news conference following Monday’s ruling, Nechirvan Barzani said the court’s ruling was reached unilaterally, without input from KRG representatives, and called for a third party to oversee negotiations between Baghdad and the Kurds.

“The rights of Kurds are enshrined in the (Iraqi) constitution and we seek the implementation of this constitution to resolve our issues with Baghdad,” Barzani told reporters, according to Kurdish Rudaw TV.

“The constitution is one package and must be applied in its entirety, not selectively.”

However, Barzani did not directly say whether Kurdish officials accepted the effective cancellation of the referendum. The KRG had previously offered only to freeze the results.

The KRG later said its chief concern was the lifting of an embargo on international flights to the region, which it said hampered foreign investment as well as humanitarian efforts for the more than 1.5 million internally displaced people currently in the region.

“We call on the international community to intercede in urging Baghdad authorities to lift the embargo, without condition, on international flights.”

“The restrictive policies adopted by Baghdad against Erbil are in violation of Iraq’s obligations and responsibilities under international and humanitarian law,” the KRG said in a statement.

(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad and Raya Jalabi in Erbil; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Janet Lawrence and William Maclean)