Iraqi Kurdistan is not presently considering at closing its border with Syria given the continuous flow of refugees, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Representative to the United States Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman told Sputnik
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd November, 2019) Iraqi Kurdistan is not presently considering at closing its border with Syria given the continuous flow of refugees, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Representative to the United States Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman told Sputnik.When asked whether there are any talks about closing the border with Syria, Rahman said, "Not at the moment."
Rahman noted that the KRG has never closed the border to refugees.
"Even when we were being flooded with refugees and displaced people, we kept the border open," she said.
Rahman told Sputnik earlier that Iraqi Kurdistan received 16,700 Syrian refugees after Turkey's military operation in northeast Syria, but refugees continue to arrive daily albeit at lower numbers.
"A month ago, we were receiving 1,000 people per day. Now the numbers are more like 200, 150 per day," Rahman said. "The numbers every day have slowed down. But as I said, we don't know how many will come in the end, because it depends on how much violence there is.
Rahman said the KRG is very concerned about the militias present in the border region given that the movement of refugees depends on the level of violence.
On October 9, Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring in northeastern Syria to clear the area of Kurdish militia and the Islamic State terror group (banned in Russia), as well as to create a safe zone for the relocation of Syrian refugees residing in Turkey.
Just over a week later, the United States and Turkey agreed to a 120-hour ceasefire in the area to allow the withdrawal of the Kurdish fighters.
As the ceasefire came to an end, Turkey and Russia signed an October 22 memorandum in Sochi stipulating that, within 150 hours, the Kurdish militia would be withdrawn to a distance of 30 kilometers from Syria's border with Turkey.
On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the Kurdish forces' withdrawal from Syria's north had been nearly completed, and only some minor presence was still possible.
