Sputnik News- Despite claims to stay the 'eternal friend of Kurds', Iran reportedly temporarily banned its companies transporting oil products from Iraqi Kurdistan.



"The organization of�transport and traffic management temporarily prohibited the loading and transportation of�fuel from�Iran to�Iraqi Kurdistan and from�it in�connection with�the latest developments in�this region," the Iranian Tasnim news agency�reports.


Earlier in�the week, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stated that Iran would remain an eternal friend of�Kurds despite�their recent vote to�split from�Iraq.

Iran is the only country with�a large proportion of�Kurdish population which manages to�cultivate decent relations with�them. With Iraqi Kurds Tehran has a long-standing relationship which has deepened after�2014 when Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps started to�back Kurdish Peshmerga's efforts to�counter Daesh.

Zarif predicted the Monday referendum, in�which 92 percent of�the 3.4 million people in�northern Iraq's three main Kurdish provinces and in�multi-ethnic Kirkuk�region�voted to�have a separate nation state, would have consequences that would not be limited to�Iraqi Kurdistan.

Iran and Turkey criticized the referendum amid�fears it might strengthen separatist feelings in�their own ethnic Kurdish minorities. The United Nations and the United States also decried the Iraqi Kurdish authorities for�potentially destabilizing the region. Baghdad has called the vote illegal and has refused to�engage in�a dialogue with�Kurdish leaders.