TEHRAN – The Peshmerga ministry has said that no one other than the people of Kurdistan has the right to talk about the fate of the Kurdish people, Rudaw Media Network reported.

The comments came after an Iranian commander warned against the Kurdistan independence referendum, saying it may cause conflict in Iraq.

“Holding the referendum is a natural and just right of the people of Kurdistan and no one other than the people of Kurdistan has the right to talk about it,” the Peshmerga ministry said in a statement released on Friday.

Earlier this week, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, made a rare visit to Ankara where he met with his Turkish counterpart, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Turkey’s defense minister.

Bagheri told IRNA on Wednesday that they discussed the Kurdistan referendum.

If the referendum is held, he said, it will become the source of a series of tensions and conflicts inside Iraq, which will have consequences for neighboring countries.

He added that Iran and Turkey shared the view that the referendum “should not take place.”

The Peshmerga ministry described the comments as “blatant intervention” in the internal affairs of Kurdistan.

“Hereby we announce to everyone that talking about the rights of the people of Kurdistan is not the duty of this person and this will be considered as a blatant intervention in the internal affairs of Kurdistan,” it said in the statement.

The independence referendum for Iraqi Kurdistan has been scheduled to be held on September 25. It was originally planned to be held in 2014 but was later postponed.

MH/PA