He coated his warning, according to Weshyar Omar, who attended the meeting, by reassuring the Kurds that with help from France and Britain, Washington would give guarantees to the Kurds to resolve all the outstanding issues with Baghdad if they were to postpone the referendum.
McGurk’s pressure bore fruit when he managed to convince the PUK and the KDP to postpone the first session of the Kurdish parliament from Sept. 14 to the following day to allow Gorran sufficient time to discuss the issue at its General Council meeting, which took place on the evening of Sept. 13, according to a senior Gorran official who attended the gathering.
McGurk is said to be pushing for an agreement among the Kurdish parties, who in turn will officially request through the Kurdish parliament that Barzani postpone the vote to another time after Iraqi's elections in April 2018. Barzani will then concede to postponing the plebiscite on the basis that it is the wish of the representatives of the Kurdish people. Tehran and Washington will get their way, and Barzani will be able to back down while saving face.
Indeed, on Sept. 14 the website of the Kurdish presidency announced that the United States, the UK and the United Nations had presented an alternative to holding the Sept. 25 plebiscite on the same day to Barzani, and that Barzani had responded that he will consult with the political leadership in Kurdistan and respond shortly.
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