Russia committed to Iraq’s territorial integrity - Lavrov

MOSCOW, October 23. /TASS/. Russia backs Iraq’s territorial integrity and considers that creating new division lines due to national and religious grounds is unacceptable, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said opening the talks with his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari on Monday. "I want to confirm once again our commitment to the respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq, the commitment to solving all the problems that arise through an inclusive national dialogue, involving and taking into account the interests of all ethnic, religious and political groups," Lavrov said. Lavrov also said as the situation starts normalizing and the talks on political settlement in different areas of the region are on the horizon, "it is very important to prevent the creation of new division lines due to religious or ethnic grounds and to overcome the old ones." Iraqi Kurdistan, the country’s autonomous region, held the independence referendum on September 25, which was strongly opposed by the Iraqi government. More than 90 percent of voters supported the idea of independence from Iraq, Kurdistan's Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission announced. Baghdad says the referendum was held in violation of the key law and does not recognize its results. Read more