An Iraqi vice president warned Sunday that Baghdad would not tolerate the creation of “a second Israel” after the Zionist entity became the only country to support a planned Kurdish independence referendum in northern Iraq.

The leaders of autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan must “call off the (September 25) referendum that is contrary to the constitution and does not serve the general interests of the Iraqi people, not even the particular interests of the Kurds”, said Vice President Nuri al-Maliki.

“We will not allow the creation of a second Israel in the north of Iraq,” Maliki, a former prime minister, said at a meeting with US ambassador Douglas Silliman, in a statement released by the vice president’s office.

He warned that an independence vote would have “dangerous consequences for the security, sovereignty and unity of Iraq”, and called for dialogue between Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government in the northern city of Arbil.

It is worth noting that an Israeli flag was flown alongside Kurdish flags at a rally in Arbil on Friday in support of the referendum.

Source: AFP