All Border Posts With Iraqi Kurdistan Open

Iran has reopened all its border crossings with Iraq’s Kurdish region, foreign ministry spokesman, Bahram Qasemi, said on Monday, after their closure over a controversial independence vote.

Qasemi said the two frontier crossings of Haj Omran and Parvezkhan had been reopened, without giving a specific date, after the Bashmaq frontier post began working again in October, AFP reported.

Iran closed the border crossings after Iraqi Kurds on Sept. 25 voted in favor of independence at a referendum Baghdad dismissed as illegal.

Iran and Turkey, which have Kurdish communities of their own, were also against the poll.

The plebiscite sparked a bitter standoff between the Kurds and Iraq’s central government.

Last month, the Iraqi Supreme Court ruled the poll to be “unconstitutional”.

Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani earlier this month said he “respected” the ruling and had “no problem” with the federal government over the issue of border control.