... as regional neighbors warn action

Iraqi Kurds have voted overwhelmingly for independence.

Over 90 percent of Iraqi Kurds have voted yes to independence on the Iraqi Kurdish referendum on whether to secede from Iraq.

According to the referendum commission, initial results indicate that 91.83 percent voted to secede.

About 3.4 million ballots were counted, with official results from the referendum to be announced Thursday.

The separatist vote — which has only been publicly supported by Israel — has been met with hostility from Iraqi Kurdistan’s neighbors, as well as Iraq.

Baghdad — which rejected the vote as a “creation of a second Israel” — said that the Kurdistan Regional Government, KRG, which controls the area that held the referendum, has three days to hand over control of its airports or face an air embargo.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi also called on foreign states to stop cooperating with the KRG on issues in the oil sector. He also demanded that all border posts with Turkey, Syria and Iran be placed under Baghdad's supervision.

Kurds celebrate during their independence referendum in Erbil, Iraq Monday. | Photo: Reuters

Turkey also responded aggressively, threatening military action and sanctions in order to force the KRG to "give up on this adventure that can only have a dark end.”

Women show their ink-stained fingers during the independence referendum in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq. | Photo: Reuters

"It will be over when we close the oil taps, all (their) revenues will vanish, and they will not be able to find food when our trucks stop going to northern Iraq," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pressed.

Iran on Sunday had also banned direct flights to and from the Kurdistan Region.

An official within Iran’s Expediency Council, Ali Akbar Velayati, stated before the vote that the existence of a secessionist Kurdish state in Iraq would only benefit the United States and the “Zionist regime of Israel,” both of whom seek to “colonize and dominate” the Middle East, Press TV reported.

While the United States publicly opposed the Sept. 25 referendum, according to Patrick Higgins, a Ph.D. student at the University of Houston who writes on the history of leftist Palestinian movements, this is likely a bid to appease Iraq and stave off Iran’s influence in the country.

Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani has attempted to ease tensions, urging the federal government and Iraq's neighbors not to view the vote as a threat.

"Should the 'Yes' vote win with a clear majority, it does not mean that we will declare independence the very next day. Nor will it be used for drawing new borders," Barzani said. "We will engage in serious negotiations with Baghdad."