‘Time has come for Iraqi Kurds to hold referendum’

Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani has declared that the “time has come” for the country’s Kurds to hold a referendum on sta-tehood, a move likely to raise tensions with Bag-hdad. But even if the various political challenges to independence are resolved, the major economic problems the region faces due to low oil prices are another bar to Kurdish independence.

“The time has come and the conditions are now suitable for the people to make a decision through a referendum on their future,” Mr Barzani said in a statement released on Wednesday.

“This referendum would not necessarily lead to (an) immediate declaration of statehood, but rather to know the will and opinion of the people of Kurdistan about their future,” said Mr Barzani, who has remained in power despite the expiration of his term as President.

Mr Barzani, who has made similar calls in the past, did not specify when the vote would take place.

Iraq’s Kurds are a key US partner in the war against ISIS and have been some of the most effective forces fighting the jihadists.

But both the referendum on independence — which Iraq’s federal government opposes — and the issue of which areas it covers will raise tensions between the auton-omous Kurdish region and Baghdad, potentially complicating anti-ISIS efforts. The region officially includes three provinces, but Kurdish forces now hold parts of four more.