The parliament also called for the government to take control of all oil fields in the Kurdish region. Despite severe opposition from Iraq and other countries, the Iraqi Kurds voted to secede in their Sept. 25 independence referendum. While the vote is nonbinding, it led to a tense standoff between Kurdish leaders and the Iraqi government. Iran and Turkey have separately held military exercises along their borders with the Kurdish region ahead of and since the vote. Iraqi Kurds have essentially governed themselves since 1991, when the United States established a no-fly zone over northern Iraq to protect them from attacks by the regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Source: Washington Post September 27, 2017 13:09 UTC