Iraqi Kurds headed to the polls Sept. 25 to vote on an independence referendum despite continued strong opposition from neighboring Turkey and Iran, the broader international community and the Iraqi central government in Baghdad. Iran had long made its opposition to the referendum known, although how exactly Tehran would respond remained in doubt. It seems that the first step has been taken with the closing of Iranian airspace to the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

“With the request of Iraq’s central government, all Iranian flights to Sulaimaniyah and Erbil as well as flights passing through our airspace to the Kurdistan region have been suspended,” said Kayvan Khosravi, the spokesman for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, on Sept. 24. He said the council had held a special meeting on the referendum and Baghdad's request.

“Hasty decisions by some of the officials of Iraqi Kurdistan limit Kurd's power to act through constructive dialogue in Iraq’s government and pose challenges to the security of Kurdish people and the country of Iraq,” Khosravi further remarked. The referendum, he added, “poses serious challenges for the region.”

The vote on independence was the top story in the majority of Iranian newspapers. Both Reformist and conservative papers took a critical stance on the vote. In Iran, the division of Iraq is viewed within the broader context of the possible further disintegration of Middle Eastern states. That Israel, Iran’s biggest foe in the region, has supported the independence vote, has played no small part in Tehran’s calculus.