DUBAI, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier flydubai said Wednesday it will stop flying to Erbil, the Iraqi Kurdish region, from Saturday, Sept. 30 after the Kurdish referendum on independence from Iraq.
Over 92 percent of voters in the region voted in favor of independence, UAE daily Gulfnews reported.
The decision followed a ban imposed by Iraqi authorities decided for all flights from and to Erbil and the second Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, said Gulfnews.
The central government in Baghdad said it would not accept a partition of the Kurdish region from the Arab republic. In the Middle East, only Israel said it would support Kurdish independence.
Turkey threatened to invade northern Iraq in case the referendum would lead to the declaration of an independent Kurdish state. Iran already shut earlier this week its border with the Kurdish region over the referendum.
