Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has voiced support for the separation of Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region from the country.
“We should … support the Kurdish aspiration for independence,” Reuters quoted Netanyahu as saying on Sunday.
He further noted that Iraqi Kurds deserve independence, saying Kurds “are a fighting people that has proved its political commitment, political moderation, and deserves political independence”.
Earlier in the day, Kurdish Peshmerga forces seized heavy weapons and military equipment in Kirkuk governorate, claiming it as part of their own territory.
Lieutenant Abdul Amir al-Zaidi, a senior Iraqi military commander, said that the Kurdish forces attacked military bases and disrupted the security situation in Diyala and Kirkuk.
On Friday, Masoud Barzani, the president of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said that the KRG will not return the oil-rich hub of Kirkuk to Baghdad.
Kurdish security forces took control of Kirkuk after Iraqi troops entered a battle with the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) earlier this month.
Iraqi armed forces have been engaged in fierce clashes with the terrorists, who have threatened to take their acts of violence to the capital, Baghdad. However, advances by the so-called ISIL have been slowed down as Iraqi military and volunteer forces have begun engaging them on several fronts.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has stressed that his government remains steadfast in defeating the ISIL Takfiri militants, blaming Saudi Arabia, Qatar and some Arab states of the Persian Gulf for the growing terrorism in his country.
IA/MAM/AS
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