Russia has no plans to force its opinion on sides in conflict over Iraqi Kurdistan - Lavrov

MOSCOW, October 23. /TASS/. Russia has no plans to force its opinion on all the sides in the conflict over Iraqi Kurdistan and the parties concerned should make a decision themselves, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday. "I believe that specifically the sides [in the conflict] should decide themselves whether they will start a direct dialogue or some mediators will be needed," Lavrov said after a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari. "We do not want to impose any decision," Russia’s top diplomat added. Apart from very close and friendly relations with the government of Iraq, Moscow "maintains contacts with all the movements among Kurds," Lavrov said. "We send all of them a signal about the need to look for a mutually acceptable accord. I am convinced that all the possibilities exist for this," the Russian foreign minister said. As Russia’s top diplomat noted, "Baghdad does not reject Kurds, does not declare them criminals, enemies or terrorists and does not ban their language, their traditions and their culture and does not destroy their monuments. On the contrary, it involves Kurds in the bodies of power, recognizes special rights of the Kurdish autonomy within the Iraqi state." "All the components are present to agree on how to ensure joint living within the single state in compliance with the Iraqi Constitution," Lavrov said. Iraqi Kurdistan whose autonomous status is sealed in Iraq’s Constitution held an independence referendum on September 25. The local supreme electoral commission announced that over 90 percent of those who had taken part in the plebiscite spoke for the secession. The Iraqi government believes that the referendum was held in violation of the fundamental law and does not recognize the voting results. Read more