Iran welcomes Kurdistan’s offer to freeze referendum results

Iran has welcomed the Kurdistan Regional Government’s offer to freeze the results of its referendum on separation from Iraq.

Ali Akbar Velayati, senior foreign policy adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said the referendum and its results would not have achieved anything for Kurds or Iraqis, stressing that it is in the interest of all Iraqis not to change the country’s current geographical and geopolitical situation.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Mehr News Agency quoted the Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, Mohsen Rezai, as saying that Kurdistan’s return to the Iraqi constitution is “a rational step”.

Earlier in the day, Iran resumed trade movement with the Kurdistan region through the Bashmagh border crossing.

Iran had previously closed the border crossing with Kurdistan after the Iraqi foreign ministry sent requests to Iran and Turkey to close the border crossings with Kurdistan and stop all commercial dealings with the region following the referendum.

Read: Post-referendum Iraq… is there enough space in the cemeteries for our victims?