'Collective punishment'

The Iraqi Kurdish regional government yesterday rejected measures adopted by Baghdad in the wake of its independence vote as illegal and nothing more than "collective punishment".

"The Kurdish Regional Government rejects all the decisions taken by the Iraqi government and parliament and regards them as collective punishment against the Kurds," it said after a cabinet meeting in the region's capital Arbil.

"These decisions are illegal and unconstitutional... They deny the constitutional rights of the Kurds," it said, while reiterating, however, that the KRG was "ready for dialogue to resolve problems" with Baghdad.

In a first concrete move by the central government in retaliation for the non-binding referendum, which delivered a resounding 92.7 percent "yes" for independence, all foreign flights to and from Arbil are to be suspended from Friday.

Iraqi lawmakers on Wednesday passed a resolution calling on Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to "take all necessary measures to maintain Iraq's unity" including by deploying security forces to disputed areas.

They also called for the closure of border posts with Turkey and Iran that are outside central government control.

Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim yesterday said he wants to hold a summit with Iranian and Iraqi leaders to coordinate how to respond to the controversial Iraqi Kurdish independence referendum.

Turkey also said it had stopped training peshmerga forces in northern Iraq in response to the independence vote there.

The Kurdish peshmerga have been at the forefront of the campaign against Islamic State and been trained by Nato-member Turkey's military since late 2014.

The Iraqi foreign ministry yesterday said the United Nations has offered to help "solve the problem" between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Jan Kubis, the top UN envoy in Iraq, made the offer at a meeting with Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari in Baghdad, the ministry said in a statement.