TEHRAN, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Iran said Sunday it had blocked all flights to and from Iraq's Kurdistan at the request of Baghdad, one day ahead of Kurdistan's independence referendum, official news agency IRNA reported.
"At the request of the central government of Iraq, all flights from Iran to Sulaymaniyah and Erbil, as well as all flights through our airspace originating from the Kurdistan region, have been stopped," official news agency IRNA quoted the spokesman for the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Keivan Khosravi, as saying.
Since Iran's political activities did not result in conclusion due to the Kurdistan's insistence on referendum, the SNSC decided in its urgent meeting on Sunday morning to seal its borders to the Kurdish flights, Khosravi said.
"The hasty decision of the Kurdistan authorities has both limited their role in Iraq's political scene and has opened the security of Iraq, the region and the Kurds to serious challenges," he added.
On Sunday, Turkey also closed its airspace to Iraqi Kurdistan flights.
Iraq, Iran and Turkey have agreed on taking countermeasures if the semi-autonomous Kurdish region heads to hold an independence referendum in northern Iraq.
On June 7, the Kurdish President Masoud Barzani announced his intention to hold a referendum on the independence of the Kurdish region from Iraq on Sept. 25.
The independence of Kurds is opposed by many countries because it would threaten the integrity of Iraq and it comes as the Iraqi forces are in fight against the Islamic State group.
In addition, the neighboring countries of Turkey, Iran and Syria see that such a step would threaten their territorial integrity, as larger populations of Kurds live in those countries.
