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Kurds Vote despite their Neighbors’ Threats

An Iraqi Kurdish man poses with his inked fingers after casting a vote during the referendum on independence from Iraq in Irbil on September 25, 2017. Khalid Mohammed / AP
An Iraqi Kurdish man poses with his inked fingers after casting a vote during the referendum on independence from Iraq in Irbil on September 25, 2017. Khalid Mohammed / AP
    Ankara, Erbil, Baghdad - Said Abdul Razak & Asharq Al-Awsat
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Kurds Vote despite their Neighbors’ Threats

An Iraqi Kurdish man poses with his inked fingers after casting a vote during the referendum on independence from Iraq in Irbil on September 25, 2017. Khalid Mohammed / AP
An Iraqi Kurdish man poses with his inked fingers after casting a vote during the referendum on independence from Iraq in Irbil on September 25, 2017. Khalid Mohammed / AP

Iraq and the region entered on Monday the post-Kurdistan referendum phase as the popular vote held in the three Iraqi Kurdistan provinces tuned into a fait accompli.

“The Kurdish political forces that were against the referendum or had some reservations on it finally changed their positions and have strongly participated in the vote,” independent regional sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday.

They added that the high turnout might push worldwide powers, such as the US, to interfere in the next phase and work on holding talks between Erbil and Baghdad.

After the polling stations were close at 6 pm, the electoral commission announced that voters’ turnout has reached 78 percent out of 5.2 million eligible voters.

The referendum was held in the Kurdistan Region’s three provinces: Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Duhok, and in the disputed territories, such as Kirkuk, Khanaqeen and the province of Diyala.

In Kirkuk, the voting day ended by the announcement of a curfew to prevent any disputes between supporters of the referendum and those against it.

Meanwhile, the referendum was held despite neighboring countries threatening to take escalatory measures against the move.

The Iraqi government on Monday voted on a resolution demanding that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to send troops to all territories that the Kurdistan Region has taken control of since 2003.

Soon after the parliament’s decision, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said it started a joint drill with the Turkish Army at the border.

Ankara also uncovered on Monday a list of expected sanctions against the Kurdistan Region for ignoring its previous warnings against holding the referendum.

The sanctions include closing the Habur border crossing and freezing exports and oil and gas purchases from the Kurdistan Region.

Also on Monday, Iran closed its borders with Iraqi Kurdistan before reopening it again later, asserting that it only closed its airspace on flights to and from the Kurdistan Region.

Meanwhile, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern about the potentially destabilizing effects of the referendum while the White House said it hopes a unified Iraq will “annihilate” ISIS and push back on Iran.

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Arab World

UN Begins Polio Vaccination in Gaza, as Fighting Rages

Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
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UN Begins Polio Vaccination in Gaza, as Fighting Rages

Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)

The United Nations, in collaboration with Palestinian health authorities, began to vaccinate 640,000 children in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, with Israel and Hamas agreeing to brief pauses in their 11-month war to allow the campaign to go ahead.

The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed last month that a baby was partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.

The campaign began on Sunday in areas of central Gaza, and will move to other areas in coming days. Fighting will pause for at least eight hours on three consecutive days.

The WHO said the pauses will likely need to extend to a fourth day and the first round of vaccinations will take just under two weeks.

'Complex’ campaign

"This is the first few hours of the first phase of a massive campaign, one of the most complex in the world," said Juliette Touma, communications director of UNRWA, the UN Palestinian refugee agency.

"Today is test time for parties to the conflict to respect these area pauses to allow the UNRWA teams and other medical workers to reach children with these very precious two drops. It’s a race against time," Touma told Reuters.

Israel and Hamas, who have so far failed to conclude a deal that would end the war, said they would cooperate to allow the campaign to succeed.

WHO officials say at least 90% of the children need to be vaccinated twice with four weeks between doses for the campaign to succeed, but it faces huge challenges in Gaza, which has been largely destroyed by the war.

"Children continue to be exposed, it knows no borders, checkpoints or lines of fighting. Every child must be vaccinated in Gaza and Israel to curb the risks of this vicious disease spreading," said Touma.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued to battle Hamas-led fighters in several areas across the Palestinian enclave. Residents said Israeli army troops blew up several houses in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, while tanks continued to operate in the northern Gaza City suburb of Zeitoun.

On Sunday, Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza where they were apparently killed not long before Israeli troops reached them, the military said.

The war was triggered after Hamas fighters on Oct. 7 stormed into southern Israel killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages by Israeli tallies.

Since then, at least 40,691 Palestinians have been killed and 94,060 injured in Gaza, the enclave's health ministry says.