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Kurds ask higher authority to end crisis with Baghdad

Kurds are now seeking to pressure the Iraqi central government from the top of the Shiite religious pyramid, asking Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to help solve the crisis between Baghdad and Erbil.
A portrait of Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is seen in the city of Najaf on July 11, 2017 as Iraqis take to the streets to celebrate a day after the government's announcement of the "liberation" of the embattled city of Mosul. 
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared Mosul finally retaken on July 10, as his forces fought to recapture a last sliver of territory still held by the jihadists in the Old City on the west bank of the Tigris River. / AFP PHOTO / Haidar HAMDANI        (Photo credit sh

NAJAF, Iraq — With seemingly nowhere else to turn, beleaguered Iraqi Kurds are seeking salvation through Shiite religious authorities. The crisis between Iraq's central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish headquarters in Erbil appears to have laid waste to all other internal and external attempts to resolve the repercussions of the Sept. 25 Kurdish independence referendum.

Baghdad's latest salt in Erbil's wounds came March 4, when it cut the Kurds' share of the 2018 general budget to 12.6% from 17%. The Kurds then threatened to withdraw from the political process, as Massoud Barzani, the former president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said this reduction was “undermining the rights of the Kurds.”

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