Border With Iraq’s Kurdistan Closed at Baghdad’s Request

EghtesadOnline: Iran has shut its border crossings with the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.

News ID: ۷۷۹۸۸۴

23 October 2017

“At the request of the Iraqi government, the Islamic Republic of Iran closed today the border crossings with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq,” the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement in Baghdad on Sunday, Reuters reported. An Iranian MP Mohammad Javad Nobandegani said Tehran did not want to publicize the closing of the border. “There is no need for explicit publicity,” the MP was quoted as saying by ILNA. “The closure would negatively impact residents who depend on border trade. National interests sometimes require us to act this way.” Iran last month halted flights to and from the Iraqi Kurdistan after a controversial independence referendum was held there. According to results announced by KRG, almost 93% of registered voters cast ballots in favor of independence. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier this month that Turkey would also close its border with northern Iraq soon and shut its airspace as well. Iraqi Kurdistan is a landlocked region that is heavily dependent on its neighbors. According to Hamid Hosseini, secretary-general of Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce, Iran exported commodities worth more than $3 billion to Iraq during the six months to Sept. 22, with less than one-third of the exports going to the northern Kurdish region, according to Financial Tribune.