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REUTERS
BAGHDAD/KIRKUK
Iraq's parliament on Thursday voted to remove the governor of Kirkuk, a staunch supporter of Kurdish independence, just days before a referendum on whether to split from Baghdad.
The Kurdish presidency said leaders would study a western plan to delay the referendum and ease tensions. But hours later, President Massoud Barzani himself was quoted by local media as telling a rally the vote would go ahead on Sept. 25 as planned.
Kirkuk Governor Najmaddin Kareem said he had no intention of following Baghdad's order, issued at the behest of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, and stepping down.
"I will stay in office," he told Reuters."The referendum will go on as planned...The prime minister does not have the power to ask parliament to remove me."
Iraqi lawmakers authorised Abadi this week to"take all measures" to preserve national unity before the independence referendum, which they have voted to reject.
Baghdad and Iraq's neighbours are opposed to the vote. Iraqi lawmakers say it will consolidate Kurdish control over several disputed areas, including oil-rich Kirkuk.
The province is claimed by both the central government in Baghdad and Barzani's semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
Kareem is a vocal supporter of the referendum and campaigned for the vote to be held in Kirkuk.
Kurds have long claimed Kirkuk and its huge oil reserves. They regard the city, just outside their Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, as their historical capital. But the ethnically mixed city also has Arab and Turkmen populations. The referendum has become a potential flashpoint in the region, with Western powers worrying it could ignite conflict with the central government in Baghdad and divert attention from the war against Islamic State militants.
Turkey has the region's largest Kurdish population and fears a"Yes" vote could fuel separatism in its southeast where Kurdish militants have waged an insurgency for three decades in which more than 40,000 people have been killed. Iran and Syria also oppose the vote, fearing it could fan separatism among their own Kurdish populations.
