A high-ranking diplomat said the Iraqi government and its neighbors are working toward a diplomatic resolution to the dispute over Iraqi Kurdistan's push for secession, which would give the Kurdish people greater rights to eliminate any feeling of discrimination.
The Kurdistan Regional Government held a vote on separation from Iraq late last month, which it claimed saw a 72% turnout in the region that hosts roughly three million Kurds and over 92% of votes in favor of a separate state.
Speaking on Thursday, Deputy Foreign Minister Ebrahim Rahimpour said talks are ongoing among Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria to address the causes behind the dissatisfaction of Iraqi Kurdish people, which are being misused by enemies of the Middle East as part of efforts to widen regional chasms, IRNA reported.
"We are confident measures can be taken so that Kurds have their [fair] share and be equal to other ethnic groups, just like the situation in Iran," he said.
Iran's Kurdish population accounts for seven million of the 80-million nation, who are mostly scattered across Iran's western provinces.
"If the rights of Iraqi Kurds were established and these discriminations were stopped, but Kurdish leaders still insisted on secession from Iraq, it will be clear that the problem originates from outside the Kurdish territory," he said.
The referendum drew strong criticism from Iraq's federal government and its neighbors, as well as opposition from the international community.
The Israeli regime is the only backer of the KRG-organized vote.
In mid-September, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads a regime that has turned life into a nightmare for generations after generations of Palestinian people, announced Israel backs the "legitimate efforts of Kurdish people to attain a state of its own".
Long-Running Battles Loom
Separately, Iran's Chairman of the General Staff of Armed Forces Mohammad Baqeri said it was a momentous task to stop KRG's secession push and prevent a breakup of Iraq, which he described as a new Israeli plot for the region.
"If this issue is not solved, certainly it will cause years-long and decades-long clashes in the region. That is the design of adversaries, the Zionist regime and the criminal US," he said.
On Wednesday, Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said the referendum indicates that major powers aim to create "a new Israel" in the region. Speaking in a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Tehran, Ayatollah Khamenei castigated KRG's secessionist move as an "act of treason" against the region, which threatens its future.
Erdogan said there is "irrefutable evidence" that the US and Israel have reached a broad agreement on the issue of Kurdistan's independence.
"Iraq's neighbors will certainly reject this decision, so Kurdish officials will not be able to take any step and will go nowhere [in their push for independence]," he said.
KRG has said the referendum was held to give it a mandate to negotiate a peaceful secession with Baghdad.
The Iraqi government has rejected any talks and demanded that the Kurdish leadership cancel the result of the referendum to avoid sanctions, international isolation and possibly a military intervention.
