<p style="text-align: left;">Addressing the 2017 Atlantic Council-Korea Foundation Forum on Tuesday, December 12, Tillerson said the U.S. policy has always been a unified Iraq and that the Kurdish referendum was “disruptive” to the unity of Iraq.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">According to NRT Tillerson added that the United States is working through the process to ensure that both the Kurdistan Region and Iraq remain unified.</p> <p style="text-align: left;"> “We are supporting both deconfliction and we’re supporting a re-engagement around the Iraqi constitution which was never fully implemented,” Tillerson said.</p> <p style="text-align: left;"> “And we will stand and we have said we’ll stand with the Kurds to support them in the full implementation of the Iraqi constitution when – which, when it is fully implemented, will address a number of grievances that the Kurdish people have had for some time and we hope will lead to that unified Iraq.”</p> <p style="text-align: left;">Relations between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq hit their lowest in the aftermath of the referendum held by the Kurdistan Region, which saw 92.7 percent of voters say “yes” to independence.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">Reporter’s code: 50101</p>