Sir Michael Fallon in Iraq to persuade Kurdistan president to call off independence vote

Sir Michael Fallon, defence secretary, met on Monday with the president of Iraqi Kurdistan in a last-ditch attempt to persuade him to call off his planned referendum on independence.

During a surprise visit to Iraq Sir Michael renewed Britain’s rejection of the vote, which it sees as a distraction from the war on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) militants who continue to occupy parts of Iraq and Syria.  

"We are committed to the integrity of Iraq. We are working with the UN on alternatives to this referendum," he said as he arrived in Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan. 

Masoud Barzani was  last week presented with an alternative to the September 25 vote by delegates from the UK, US and UN. 

In it they offered to sponsor talks with Baghdad over territorial disputes, as well as disagreements over the distribution of oil revenues from the region.

However, it is thought it fell short of Mr Barzani’s demands. 

The president spent the weekend addressing large rallies across the Kurdish region to reassure supporters the controversial referendum would go ahead as planned. 

Iraq's supreme court stepped in on Monday ordering the suspension of the referendum while it examines whether the plebiscite would be constitutional.

Baghdad is also angered among the inclusion of Kirkuk in the vote, a contested oil-rich city which lies between Iraq and Kurdistan. 

Haider al-Abadi, iraq’s prime minister, said that Iraq is prepared to intervene militarily if the Kurdish region's referendum results in violence.

While Britain and the US are allies of the Kurds in their joint fight against Isil, they have been torn by their support for other, more influential friends in the region. 

Kurdistan’s neighbours have also reacted with fury at the vote, with tensions rising further on Monday.

Turkey, which like Iran harbours fears of Kurdish separatism on its own territory, carried out military exercises at the Iraqi border. In a clear show of force, dozens of tanks were massed on its southern frontier. 

Meanwhile Iran warned of a border blockade and military action if Iraqi Kurds went ahead with their plans.

Kurds, the largest stateless ethnic group in the world, have held decades-long ambition for indepence.

In Iraq they were brutally oppressed under Saddam Hussein, whose military in the 1980s killed at least 50,000 of them, many with chemical weapons. Iraq's Kurds established a regional government in 1992 after the US enforced a no-fly zone across the north following the Gulf War.

After the 2003 US-led invasion ousted Saddam, the region secured constitutional recognition of its autonomy, but remained part of the Iraqi state.

Iraq’s some six million Kurds are expected to vote “yes” next Monday. While the vote is non-binding, Mr Barzani hopes to use it as leverage against Baghdad.