Kurdish parliament reconvenes to vote on independence referendum

ERBIL, Iraq - 15 September 2017: The parliament of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region convened for the first time in two years on Friday to vote on a plan to hold a referendum on independence on Sept. 25.

The central government in Baghdad opposes the plan, which was announced earlier this year by Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Iraq's neighbours, Iran and Turkey, have also expressed their opposition to the plan as they fear an independent Kurdish state could fuel separatism among their own Kurdish populations.

The parliament met in the KRG capital, Erbil, in northern Iraq.

Barzani earlier on Friday said the vote won't be delayed, despite pressing requests from the United States and other western powers worried that the tension between Baghdad and Erbil would distract from the war on Islamic State militants who continue to occupy parts of Iraq and Syria.

"We still haven't heard a proposal that can be an alternative to the Kurdistan referendum," Barzani said in a speech at a rally in the Kurdish region, referring to talks held with U.S. and western envoys this week in Erbil. "The vote won't be delayed," he added.

Gorran, the main opposition movement to Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), boycotted the parliament session in Erbil. It was a dispute between Gorran and the KDP that caused the assembly to suspend its sessions in 2015.