In Iraq, the president of the country’s autonomous Kurdish north, Massoud Barzani, has asked the regional parliament to prepare for a referendum on independence.<br /><br />The recent dramatic change in the region means Iraq’s five million Kurds now see a fully sovereign state within their grasp.<br /><br />Outside the parliament building, Kurdish people carried banners and placards with messages in support of a independent Kurdish state.<br /><br />One of the supporters explained: “We’ve come from Amadiya to show our support for Barzani’s announcement of a Kurdish State. We will back him with our souls and money because staying with Baghdad has become almost impossible: sometimes they are with us and then they turn against us.”<br /><br />According to Dubai-based al-Arabiya television, Saudi Arabia meanwhile has deployed 30,000 troops to its border with Iraq after Iraqi soldiers abandoned the area.<br /><br />Baghdad has denied this and insists the frontier remains “fully in the grip” of Iraqi border troops.
