TEHRAN, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry said Monday that Iraq's integrity and sovereignty is the principled policy of the Islamic republic and will never be negotiated.
"Our position over (Kurds' independence referendum in Iraq) is principled and unchangeable. We emphasize integrity and sovereignty of Iraq and this is non-negotiable," Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Bahram Qasemi, said in his weekly press briefing.
"We are in contact with the Iraqi government, ethnic groups, nomads and tribes, and we have good relations with the Kurds, which will be maintained," Qasemi said.
However, any attempt to endanger the integrity of Iraq might turn into chaos, he said, stressing that Iran disapproves of these kinds of attempts.
Qasemi was talking with reference to a plan of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region to hold an independence referendum in September.
Iran already said that autonomous Kurdish region plan was inconsistent with the Iraqi constitution.
"The Kurdistan Region is part of the Republic of Iraq," and such unilateral decisions would only aggravate the situation in the Arab country, Qasemi said in June.
On June 7, Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region announced that it had planned to hold a referendum on independence on Sept. 25 to decide whether to secede from Iraq.
