BAGHDAD (Sputnik) — The crisis around Iraqi Kurdistan's independence could be settled only if foreign actors put forth the initiative, but the global community has so far been reluctant to mediate the conflict, Kurdistan's Peshmerga Ministry's Secretary General Lt. Gen. Jabar Yawar told Sputnik Wednesday.
On September 25, over 90 percent of Kurdish voters supported the region's secession from Iraq in a referendum that was also held in a number of disputed areas. One such area was Kirkuk, a disputed, oil-rich province that has been controlled by Kurdish military forces, or the Peshmerga, since 2014.
“There should an international initiative, I could not imagine that there would an initiative within [Kurdistan] or Iraq, it should be an international intervention [in disputes] in the region, as well as between the region and the Iraqi government,” Yawar said.
“Neither the international coalition, nor the states that have consular offices in Erbil, nor the United Nations play a role in these actions, even as a mediator,” Yawar stressed.
On Monday, Iraqi troops regained control over a number of military and transport facilities in Kirkuk province, including the airport, military base, oil fields and the city of Kirkuk. On Tuesday, the Iraqi army and Shiite militias also took the town of Sinjar and the dam near the city of Mosul without any resistance from the Peshmerga.
