Iraq Officially Asks Turkey, Iran to Deal Exclusively with Baghdad

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry in a statement released on Friday said that they have conveyed the message through their respective embassies in Baghdad, the local media reported.

The ministry has asked Tehran and Ankara to close all ports with Kurdistan region until they come under the control of the Iraqi government, the statement added.

The statement explained that the letter had outlined two requests to Iran and Turkey, asking them in the first point of the letter to only deal with Baghdad on border ports and close the ports not under the control of the central government.

In the second point outlined in the letter, they have asked these two countries to halt all their business dealings with the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, especially in the matters of oil exports and sales of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Iraq has called upon these two countries to deal with Baghdad only in these matters.

The statement also said that the Iraqi government is working with Turkey and Iran to enforce all the decisions and implement all the measures they have agreed upon on the basis of the principles of neighborhood, protecting the sovereignty of the Iraqi territory and confronting the common threats.

The Iraqi Kurdistan Region went ahead with its plan to hold the referendum on September 25 although Iraq’s neighbors and countries in the Middle East, including Iran and Turkey, had voiced opposition to such a move and supported the Baghdad central government.