Iraqi Kurds fly Kurdish flags during a recent event to urge people to vote in the upcoming independence referendum in Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Iraq’s Supreme Court ruled Monday that the semiautonomous Kurdish region should suspend an independence referendum scheduled for next week, though the Kurds have so far ignored the court’s decision and other last-ditch efforts to stop them from carving out a new country in Iraq. Monday’s decision marks the latest opposition—both local and international—to the vote. Kurdish officials say a door is still open to postponing the referendum, which some observers see as a powerful lever to extract more aid from the West, if they are given certain unspecified concessions by the central government and Western nations. “Because the requests fulfill the legal conditions, the court has issued a ‘temporary halt decision,’” the high court said. The order came […]