KURDISTAN REGION OF IRAQ

That this House regrets Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi's decision, for electoral reasons and in collaboration with the Iranian regime, its revolutionary guards and brutally-sectarian Shia militia, to use force as a first resort to take Kirkuk and other disputed territories from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG); notes that the KRG, on the request of the Iraqi Government, reinforced its military presence to prevent Daesh capturing Kirkuk when Iraqi troops fled in 2014 and was constitutionally compliant; further regrets that Prime Minister Abadi claims to follow the Iraqi constitution, although serial and flagrant violations of its federal provisions bolstered Kurds resoundingly backing eventual and negotiated independence; fears that violence rather than co-ordination and negotiation will fuel divisions; believes that a punitive peace and centralisation, in violation of the constitution, could reduce the KRG's contribution to the Iraqi economy, diminish its ideological and military resistance to jihadist extremism, and encourage Sunni Arab resistance; accepts that Baghdad's actions illustrate the case for independence and that Kurds should not be subordinated in express violation of the Iraqi constitution; rejects Vice President Maliki's proposal to partition Kurdistan; urges governments to support resetting relations based on fully implementing the Iraqi constitution, including long deferred moves to finalise the status of the disputed territories; urges the UK and its international partners to recognise that Iranian involvement in Iraq and a weaker KRG contradict Western interests and the prospects of peace in the Middle East; and further urges the appointment of a mutually-respected mediator to resolve differences peacefully.