Downcast, the long-time Kurdish leader blamed the central government in Baghdad for the regional crisis that followed the independence vote. "Without the peshmerga the Iraqi army would never have been able to liberate the city of Mosul," he continued, referring to Iraqi Kurdish fighters. Barzani instructed parliament to distribute his presidential powers between the Kurdish prime minister, Parliament and the judiciary. Masoud Barzani held the referendum "for his own pride. While Iraq's Kurdish region participated in the drafting of the country's constitution after the overthrow of Saddam, relations between Baghdad and Irbil swiftly deteriorated in early 2014 under then Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Source: ABC News October 29, 2017 13:03 UTC