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Abadi Rejects Kurdish Offer, Demands Annulment of Referendum to Resume Talks

Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri welcomes al-Abadi in Tehran during his visit in 2014 [AP]
Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri welcomes al-Abadi in Tehran during his visit in 2014 [AP]
    Baghdad, Irbil - Asharq Al-Awat
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Abadi Rejects Kurdish Offer, Demands Annulment of Referendum to Resume Talks

Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri welcomes al-Abadi in Tehran during his visit in 2014 [AP]
Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri welcomes al-Abadi in Tehran during his visit in 2014 [AP]

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi rejected on Thursday a Kurdish proposal to freeze the referendum on independence in the Kurdistan Region and said “only a complete annulment of the referendum and the respect of the constitution” would allow the resumption of talks between Baghdad and Irbil.

Abadi was speaking Thursday from Iran following a regional tour that involved Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, in the framework of a campaign to gather support for his position against the referendum.

The Iraqi prime minister met with President Hassan Rouhani and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who expressed his country’s reservations regarding the presence of cooperation between Baghdad and Washington, while he supported the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq, asserting that it was an important country in the Arab world.

On Wednesday, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) suggested to freeze the outcome of the referendum and open talks with Baghdad and to immediately stop military operations in the Kurdish region.

At the battlefield, clashes raged on Thursday between the Iraqi forces and Peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq, leaving one leading Kurdish official dead.

The UN Security Council expressed concern over the latest developments between Baghdad and Irbil, affirming its support for the unity of the Iraqi territories.

Kurdish sources said that Peshmerga forces confronted on Thursday attacks launched by the Iraqi forces and armed members from the Hashd al-Shaabi and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on western and eastern Mosul and southern Irbil.

The Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) reported the attacks on Peshmerga positions by Iraqi forces and Hashed militias backed by Iran.

"Iraqi and Iranian-backed PMF [Popular Mobilization Forces] are shelling Peshmerga positions from Zummar, North West of Mosul. Now advancing," the Kurdistan's security council tweeted on Thursday.

It said both Hashd commanders Hadi al-Amri and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were supervising the attacks against the people of the Kurdistan Region.

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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.