Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Tuesday that new sanctions may be introduced by Ankara, Baghdad and Tehran against Iraqi Kurdistan in connection with the region’s recent referendum on independence.
“An illegal referendum was held in northern Iraq. We are not opposing the Kurdish people, but we are against the irresponsible actions of the government of northern Iraq. We have stopped air links with it and stopped broadcasting their TV channels, we did not let their representative visit us. That’s not all. If the leadership of northern Iraq does not come to its senses, we will meet with the representatives of Iraq and Iran, and we will make further decisions,” Yildirim said, Sputnik reported
The leader of Iraq’s ruling National Alliance movement Jasim Mohammad Jaafar told The New Arab that the controversial Kurdish independence will be discussed at a high-level meeting between Iraq, Iran and Turkey in the coming days.
The meeting will bring together Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, Turkey’s leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi, he said.

  Pipeline to Turkey, Bypasses Kurds
Meanwhile, Iraq’s oil minister ordered urgent repairs to a disused pipeline from northern fields to a Turkish port, a step that could eliminate the central government’s need to export crude via Iraq’s Kurdish region and further isolate the independence-seeking Kurds, Bloomberg reported.
Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi directed the North Oil Co. and State Co. for Oil Projects to complete repairs on the pipeline from Kirkuk to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, the ministry said in an emailed statement. The link, once an artery for crude exports from Iraq’s oldest producing fields, hasn’t operated for years due to sabotage in areas occupied until recently by the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group.
Iraq wants to restore the pipeline’s export capacity of 250,000 to 400,000 barrels a day and possibly boost volumes in the future, the ministry said. Iraqi security forces regained control of the pipeline and surrounding territory after advancing against IS late last year. The oil ministry didn’t say when repairs on the link, which would connect at the border with a Turkish pipeline, would be completed.