BAGHDAD - A transcript of an interview Saturday with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi by The Associated Press.
Welcome.
Well our position is that it is unconstitutional, it is illegal, there is nothing that will be taken seriously out of it. It's like taking public opinion but for us it is illegal, it clearly contradicts the constitution. And especially when it's done with a vision that there is a problem within the region itself, the Kurdish region. The parliament hasn't been held for 22 months, so there is a constitutional, legal crisis inside the KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government) and this is a very, very bad move for the Kurdish population, the Iraqi Kurdish population.
We are resorting to all legal process we have at our disposal. I think we are submitting to the federal court about the legality, the parliament has ruled this as illegal. The government has ruled this as illegal and unconstitutional and we are within one Iraq. This constitution has been voted on by all Iraqi people including our Kurdish Iraqi population so I think to challenge the constitution in this manner will come to nothing. If you challenge the constitution and if you challenge the borders of Iraq and the borders of the region, then there will not be ... this is a public invitation to the countries in the region to violate Iraqi borders as well would be a very dangerous escalation.
It will only come into effect and we will only resort to this to protect our population, to protect our Kurdish population and our Arab and Turkmen and other ethnic populations of our own country. If they are threatened by the use of force outside the law, then we will intervene militarily.
I will never close the door to negotiations. Negotiations are always possible. It will make it harder and more difficult. Because there are a lot of outstanding issues, there are disputed areas, there is the oil, there are the borders, there are the ports and other issues which have not been solved for years. This will be very difficult. We were together in one country and it was tough even then to resolve it. Now if you were to separate (regions), I think to resolve it will be much harder.
It's not up to me, there is a constitution. This is not my opinion. I don't have legal authority to accept this referendum. It is a constitutional matter. If they want to go down that road, they should work toward amending the constitution. There are certain ways and very clear (work) toward amending the constitution if they want to go that way. In that case we have to go all the way through parliament and a referendum for all Iraqi people. This is a right for all Iraqi people. This is not a right for the Arabs or the Kurds only. For them to call for only the Kurds to vote in the other areas, including Baghdad, I think this is a hostile move toward the whole Iraqi population.
Well I think they have. It depends where they are. There is much more freedom in the rest of Iraq than in the KRG, I don't think you can speak freely in the KRG without being detained, without being kicked out, not allowed to stay. But I think you have to listen to minorities outside the KRG, what they are saying. They want to stay within one Iraq, in Iraq, they don't want to be separated. Yes they want security and they want stability, but the way the KRG is going about it, this is not stability, this is against stability.
Let me just correct this: they have not been arrested. They have been placed in refugee camps. But the problem is some of these women, some are wives of terrorists, and some have been accused of being terrorists by having explosive vests on them and things like that. So to protect the rest of the refugees, they have been separated from the rest of the refugees.
They are not under arrest at the moment. Of course, children can never be terrorists. So they are investigating at the moment to get information as to what happened, and who they are. Now that we have the number of these families we are in full communication with the countries they belong to (in order) to try and find a way to hand over to them. If they have committed a crime, inside Iraq, I think the adult ones will be judged according to the Iraq law. If we don't have evidence against them then there presence inside Iraq is illegal. So I think this is a matter we have to sort out with the host countries for these citizens.
I don't have the number at the moment. I think there are small numbers of these families who we have nothing against. There are children. Countries are claiming their custody and it is clear to us, yes, they belong to that country so we don't have a problem handing them over. The number is small...