Kurdish airports for international flights, Iraqi PM says

Airports in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq will be reopened to international air traffic on Thursday, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadia said. International flights to and from the region’s two main airports, in Erbil and Suleimaniya, were halted on Sept. 29 as part of sanctions imposed on the Kurds after they held an independence referendum four days earlier in defiance of Baghdad and voted overwhelmingly for separation. Kurdish authorities have agreed that the airports should come under federal control and report to Baghdad’s interior ministry, the prime minister’s statement said. Only domestic flights have been allowed through the region’s airports, with foreign airlines suspending their routes in accordance with an order from the central government. Lifting the embargo comes amid a continuing dispute over the country’s federal budget. Kurdish lawmakers boycotted a vote to pass it, in protest over their region’s diminished allocation.<br/>