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TEHRAN, Sept. 18-- Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Monday that the Iraqi Kurdish independence vote could be detrimental to the regional people. Iraq and its neighboring countries, including Iran, are strongly opposed to a unilateral plan by the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government to hold an independence referendum, Larijani was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency. The move could create problems, including economic losses, for the Iraqi nation, he stressed. In addition, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said on Sunday that Iran would close its borders with the Iraqi Kurdistan if the region decided to secede from Iraq, Tasnim news agency reported. The border agreements between Iran and the Kurdistan region were based on an integrated Iraq, said Shamkhani, stressing that "Iran definitely recognizes only the united, integrated and federal government of Iraq." He warned that Iran would end its current military and security agreements with Erbil and renew its border security policy with the region, if the Kurdish regional government insisted on holding the referendum. He also said that Iran might reconsider its stances and adopt different approaches to fight off the anti-Iranian groups in the Iranian Kurdistan region, if the vote is to continue. Therefore, the Kurdish leadership should think twice and give up the independence referendum plan to avoid the "anti-security process" across the region, he added. | 
