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March 1st, 2018 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : The flight ban imposed on the Kurdistan Autonomous Region (KAR) of Iraq by Iraq’s federal Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has been extended by three months.
Talar Faiq, the head of Erbil International Airport in the Kurdistan Autonomous Region of Iraq told the local Rudaw news agency earlier this week that the decision to block international flights to and from airports in the region has been extended until May 31.
The blockade was set in place by the federal government of Iraq in response to the holding of an independence referendum in the region that should be used probe how much support pro-independence parties in the region have, to stand in a stronger position when negotiating with the federal government. The blockade has been condemned by all parties in the KAR as well as by representatives of many European governments.
The flight ban was set to expire on Wednesday but the extension means three more months of isolation and economic strain. The ban affects international flights to and from the Kurdistan Region’s international airports in Erbil and Sulaimani, forcing passengers to obtain an Iraqi visa to transit through Basra or Baghdad.
Omed Mohammed Salih, the spokesperson for the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Transportation Ministry said “given the steps the Kurdistan Region and Iraq took to get close to each other, we did not expect the closure of the airports be extended by three more months.” Salih, however, was optimistic for the airports being re-opened before the deadline. “This decree is from the Iraqi Civil Aviation, it could be changed with a decree from Haider al-Abadi,” he asserted.
He explained the three-month extension will not strip the two Kurdish airports of their internationality. “Granting international identity to any airports comes from a set of measures which the World Aviation Organization provides,” he said, explaining that the Erbil and Sulaimani airports do not lose their international recognition just because they have closed down for a specific period of time. People in the Kurdistan Region view the flight ban as punishment for holding the September 25 referendum on independence, as Abadi imposed the international flight ban days later. Iraqi elections are set for May 12.
CH/L – nsnbc 01.03.2018
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2018/03/01/iraq-extends-flight-ban-in-kurdistan-autonomous-region-by-3-months/
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