BAGHDAD, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi received phone calls on Thursday from Turkish and French leaders reaffirming their support to the unity of Iraq.
A statement by Abadi's office said that Abadi received a phone call from the Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim who asserted his country's support to the decisions recently adopted by Abadi and the parliament that aimed at preserving Iraqi's unity.
"Yildirim stressed his country's commitment to fully cooperate and coordinate with the Iraqi government to implement all necessary steps to extend the federal authorities in the land (borders crossings) and airports and provide the required means for that," the statement said.
The Turkish prime minister also stressed the support of his country for all other decisions, including exporting oil by the federal authorities exclusively, according to the statement.
For his part, Abadi said that the "legal steps that have been taken are necessary to prevent the danger of division and fragmentation and to strengthen Iraq's unity."
Yildirim's call followed a phone call from the French President Emmanuel Macron late on Wednesday, during which Macron reaffirmed France's position to respect the unity, territorial integrity and stability of Iraq and his rejection to the referendum in Kurdistan region," said Abadi's office in a separate statement.
Abadi praised the France position which is "clear and supportive of the unity and stability of Iraq, rejecting any steps that fuel national differences and lead to the dismantling of the region and redrawing its borders," according to the statement.
On Wednesday, Abadi urged the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) to cancel the results of the independence referendum before holding dialogue to resolve the crisis.
For its part, the Iraqi parliament reconfirmed its package of measures adopted on Sept. 25 against the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan over its controversial independence referendum held on Monday.
The parliament reiterated its authorization to Abadi as the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi forces to redeploy troops on all the disputed areas outside the Kurdish region, including Kirkuk.
The ethnic Kurds consider the northern oil-rich province of Kirkuk and parts of Nineveh, Diyala and Salahudin provinces as "disputed areas" and want them to be incorporated into their Kurdish region.
This has been fiercely opposed by the Arabs, Turkomans and by the central government in Baghdad.
The parliament also demanded the federal government regains control of Kirkuk oil fields and other oil fields in the disputed areas to be run by the federal Oil Ministry.
It voted to block all the border crossings which are outside the control of the federal authorities, and called on the neighboring countries (Turkey and Iran) to help the Iraqi government block the crossings.
It also voted in favor of a recommendation to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry to ask other countries which have consulates in the Kurdish region to close their offices, it added.
The independence of Kurdistan is opposed not only by the Iraqi central government, but also by most other countries, because it would threaten the integrity of Iraq and undermine the fight against Islamic State (IS) militants.
Iraq's neighboring countries, especially Turkey, Iran and Syria, fear the Iraqi Kurdish independence move would threaten their territorial integrity, as large population of Kurds live in those countries.
The United States has repeatedly warned the Kurds to postpone the referendum, saying such move could derail or confuse the war against IS.
