Russia hopes there won’t be any armed conflict between Iraqi authorities and Kurds - top diplomat

MOSCOW, October 23. /TASS/. Russia hopes there will be no armed conflict between the Iraqi central authorities and the Kurds; the parties should decide themselves whether they should start a direct dialogue or they need intermediaries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after negotiations with Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. "Honestly speaking, we don’t see any war yet, and we hope it won’t happen between the Iraqi government forces and the Kurds," he noted. "I think the parties themselves should decide whether they will engage in a direct dialogue or they need some intermediaries. We don’t want to impose any decision." Lavrov also reiterated that "apart from very close, friendly relations with Iraq’s government, we (Russia - TASS) are supporting contacts with all movements among Iraqi Kurds." "We are signaling them all that mutually acceptable agreements should be sought," he stressed. "I am confident that there is every opportunity for it," the Russian foreign minister noted. "The Iraqi government, the Iraqi state does not reject Kurds, does not declare them criminals, enemies or terrorists, does not prohibit their language, their traditions or their culture and does not demolish their monuments," he explained. "The Iraqi government, on the contrary, involves Kurds in government authorities and recognizes special rights of the Kurdish autonomy within the Iraqi state, so I think that there are all components necessary for negotiating the ways to secure joint residence in a single state under the Iraqi constitution." On September 25, Iraqi’s Kurdistan, that is recognized as an autonomy by the Iraqi constitution, held an independence referendum. The local supreme election committee declared that more than 90% of referendum participants voted for the secession. The Baghdad government believes that the referendum violated the laws and does not recognize the voting results. Read more