Pressure Mounts on Iraqi Kurds to Cancel Independence Vote
Asked whether Kurds might consider canceling the vote in contested areas, Mr. Zebari replied, "We are looking for options – we have not reached any final conclusions." "But of course," he added, "we would want something for it." The Kurds, isolated
and besieged for a century, have rejected a series of American proposals to drop the referendum and negotiate with Baghdad.
The White House has called the vote "provocative and destabilizing." Brett H. McGurk, the United States envoy to the region, has described it as "a very risky process" with "no prospect for international legitimacy." The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has warned
that the vote would undermine the fight against the Islamic State, where Kurdish fighters, known as pesh merga, and Iraqi army units are part of the American-led coalition.
As the Kurds rush headlong to embrace their region’s first steps toward independence, their neighbors
and allies, led by the United States, are ratcheting up demands to cancel a referendum on independence from Iraq.
David L. Phillips, a former State Department adviser who has worked on Iraq for 30 years, said Mr. Barzani was
unlikely to back down now, or to accept any guarantees from the United States or the international community.
Alan M. Noory, a Kurd who teaches social science at American University of Iraq Sulaimani, said
the vote would rupture relations with the United States and Baghdad at a critical moment.
Rabbon Marof said that We’re not a democratic state – we’re a tribal state, and we’re not ready for independence,