TEHRAN – Tehran Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said on Friday that that a plan by the Iraqi Kurdistan to hold independence referendum is a Zionist plot aimed at disintegrating Iraq.

Ayatollah Khatami said the Zionist regime’s authorities have explicitly supported the referendum while Iran, Iraq and Turkey oppose such a move.

He noted that the president of Iraqi Kurdistan is sacrificing Iraq for his own sake.

The prayer leader expressed the hope that Kurdistan’s authorities see reason and do away with Zionists’ plot.

MH/PA