Kurds offer to freeze independence
By Han Xiaoming
People's Daily app
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Cairo - The Kurdish Regional Government has offered to freeze the results of a recent disputed independence referendum and enter dialogue with Baghdad.

The government said in a statement that it proposed a ceasefire "in order to prevent further violence and clashes".

"Continued fighting does not lead any side to victory, but it will drive the country towards disarray and chaos," the government statement adds.

"Attacks and confrontations between Iraqi and Peshmerga forces that started on 16 October ... could lead to a continuous bloodshed," it reads.

Last week fighting broke out when Iraqi government forces seized the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and other areas controlled by the Kurds.

Elections for president and parliament in Iraq’s Kurdish Region will be delayed for eight months after political parties failed to present candidates, the regional parliament said Tuesday.

The Iraqi government regards the Kurdish vote for independence as illegal and has called for dialogue to resolve the crisis.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi last month demanded that the Kurdish Regional Government "cancel" the outcome of the referendum.