p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times; color: #101010} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} span.s2 {font-kerning: none; color: #347ab7} span.s3 {font: 21.0px Times; font-kerning: none; color: #ff2500} span.s4 {font-kerning: none; background-color: #00c7fc} span.s5 {font-kerning: none; background-color: #53d5fd} span.s6 {font-kerning: none; background-color: #fffc41} span.s7 {font-kerning: none; background-color: #f5ec00} Kurdistan Region parliament Speaker Yusuf Mohammed Sadiq has criticized the way the recent independence referendum was organized and accused the government of not properly involving the parliament.

In an interview with Al-Monitor from his office in the hillside neighborhood of Ali-Naji in Sulaimaniyah, Sadiq spoke about the ongoing crisis between Erbil and Baghdad and his vision for going forward. He said that the first priority of the Kurdistan Region should be to restore the role of parliament and to prepare for negotiations with Baghdad over all disputed issues. He said the negotiations would first require an internal review. “We cannot negotiate with Baghdad with the same old mechanisms,” he said.

While he preferred not to voice an opinion on whether the results of the recent independence referendum should be annulled, he said that if it “had not been held, conditions in the Kurdistan Region and the disputed areas might not have deteriorated.”

Sadiq said that since he was abroad following the referendum, he was unaware of the details concerning the peshmerga’s loss of Kirkuk. “The parliament must establish a special investigation committee to investigate all the events related to the referendum, [including] the events in Kirkuk,” he stated. “The most important question to ask is why we reached this point.”