Hello there im Barbara Starr youre watching aljazeera live from london also coming up on the program evading the question catalans leader fails to answer yes or no on whether the region has declared independence from spain. Portugals Prime Minister declares a state of emergency as raging wildfires leave at least twenty seven dead. The desperate bid to leave violence in myanmar ends in disaster for more real hinge refugees another boat capsizes leaving twelve day. Lets begin the program with major developments out of iraq where Government Forces have taken control of the city of kirkuk according to Security Forces troops moved inside the provincial government building with no opposition from kurdish for rock but charles you were in kirkuk up to what two hours ago so tell us a little bit about what you were seeing when you were there what you saw unfold. Well scenes of panic really the thousands of families that we saw queues of calls rushing to get away from kid a coke eyes quickly as possible and also many. As well what was so interesting was that. A lot of people were standing by the side of the road and demanding and telling people and the peshmerga to get back into the city and fight i think what is so incredibly surprising is the speed with which they say victory for the iraqi forces has happened i mean its its a them around fifteen hours this time last night we were getting news after a meeting by the kurdish Kurdish Regional government president barzani whod been meeting with kurdish factions and the iraqi president and it was following that meeting that he said that everybody was united that they refused to make the results of that controversial referendum on kurdish secession nolen void and vowing to defend their positions in kirkuk till death us and it was literally as i say fifteen hours and look where we are now it happened so rapidly we were in some of the areas where the peshmerga had redeployed to a couple of days ago theyd set in the dug in tanks they were said to be around six thousand Kurdish Peshmerga that were moved to these positions. And it just seems as if they were overrun very quickly and also surprising is the lack of the lack of a firefight there was very little resistance we heard that there were sporadic clashes around the outskirts but by and large these withdrawals from example from the very strategically important k. One military base that the kurds are taking control of in two thousand and fourteen when the iraqi army withdrew in the face of that eisler fence if. The. It happened within a couple of hours then the polls fell as well before we knew it there was this announcement from the iraq human achieve that it was in full control of the center of the city and there were no pressure there at school they had all played so this is a huge loss for the Kurdish Regional government and has come as a as a massive surprise absolutely and really with breast taking as speed as well so in light of everything weve weve heard and i guess the factionalism within the kurds where does this actually leave the k. R. Ji and thats the Kurdish Regional government what does that leave them. Well theres a lot of questions being asked by the Kurdish Regional government one can imagine now as to how this happened and its interesting because the blame game is beginning to appear one of president barzani senior aides has posted a letter on his twitter account which he says is a letter from one of the main shia militia factions a group called the cibo who are going to see in this letter that this group thanks members of the p u k the party of the union of Kurdistan Party for cooperating with them in withdrawing from these areas around kirkuk with so little resistance so it does suggest serious factionalism within the k r g and these questions about to be focused on by the government if you look at it within the context of the kind of International Pressure the k r g has faced in the wake of this referendum you know pressure from the turks pressure from the iranians but no endorsement by and large pretty much from virtually everybody in the International Community full this referendum a referendum through which you know ninety two percent of those more than ninety two percent of those who voted said yes to eventual goody secession so this pressure from the International Community the big players in the region and the government now continues in this loss of kirkuk which is so important for the kurds can only make that pressure even stronger. Chance to fit in with the latest from a to b. And charles for the moment thank you. Welcome cross Live National by who is in antakya in Southern Turkey and hashem were just hearing there from Charles Stratford about the International Community being against this referendum that was held been in the kurdish part of iraq turkey of course one of those countries very vocal against the referendum and now theyve made an announcement havent they theyve halted flights to iraq sacrificially john tell us a little bit more. Whether turkish government always took up the pressure against the argy by closing the space to. Also saying that hes going to hand over the hub which is the main Border Crossing to the Iraqi Government for Border Crossings between the two between the two countries mostly controlled by the kurdish factions and now this is the turkish government is moving towards. The Central Government in iraq now i have to say that this. Outcome of the referendum is creating a redefining of the whole geo political dynamics in the region in the past relations between iraq and turkey were strained because of the presence of turkish fighter. In. Now weve seen Something Different which is basically the iranians the iraqis of the turks. Really go shooting ways to coordinate the post referendum weve seen joint drills between the Turkish Military and the Iraqi Military and the Border Crossing visits by senior officials from turkey. And also expecting the turkish Prime Minister to travel. In the coming days to definitely the issue of the g. Of the referendum the future of the area is going to be topping the agenda very interesting to Political Developments in the region. With the latest there from attacking turkey hash thank you. Catalonia leader has failed to the clear if his region plans to secede from spain instead catalyst your demand to wrote a letter to the Central Government asking for dialogue so neither hugo reports from barcelona. It was supposed to be a monday deadline the catalan. Residents response to madrids demands that he clarify his position on succession lacked any definitive answers in his letter to spains Prime Minister might enter a hoyo catalyst preacher once said that the suspension of the political mandate given by the polls october first demonstrates our firm will to find a solution and not confrontation not exactly the yes or no response required by the Spanish Government before it decides whether to push ahead with suspending catalonia as autonomous powers them and theyre going to pretend that i know that on such an important issue we only asked for clarity to extend uncertainty were only favor those who wish to end peaceful coexistence and to continue with the poor project the government hopes that in the following hours up until the next deadline on thursday mr persia will give the clarity that all citizens demand and the rule of law requires we can understand his preservations and confusion and that hes doing that to meet the demands of the most radical groups the Spanish Government is maintaining its tough stance on mr preacher mond but it has given away just a fraction on the question of the deadline the ball and the fact is back in the catalan governments caught with a constitutional crisis is far from over societies are getting exhausted for the public functioning and the normal running its also affecting every days life of people so it would be very positive for everyone if they could find a solution soon but it seems its not going to. In madrid the head of the castle of Police Forces just. Arrived at Spains National court to face charges of sedition hes accused of failing to enforce a ban on the type of first referendum a vote madrid says it was illegal under the constitution it has angered many in catalonia for whom bedell is a hero to the region secessionist after his force took a much less aggressive position than the National Police force they came under International Criticism for their violent crackdown on voters. The crisis is once again being prolonged but there is little clarity about how this will end and which side will back down and many here fear what ever the capital and government decides to do it will pay the price for holding the referendum in the first place so you go out jazeera barcelona or rome ever is catalinas minister of Foreign Affairs who joins us live now from barcelona low in a sort of thank you so much for being with us here on the aljazeera so the government in spain in madrid has given you an extension now you have until thursday morning at zero eight hundred g. M. T. To effectively say what it is that youre going to do whether you will or have the cleared independence is your is your government going to announce it then is the separatist leader going to announce on thursday whether they will indeed declare independence or not. Well but i have to insist on that is not the point in the sense that the Spanish Government really wants to talk or not that is the point i think that is important to understand that this is about politics and from that perspective weve been insisting on trying to solve these negotiations at least on a negotiation table and i insist very much on that because that will be demanded before the referendum on the first of october that would we do want to trade it on the fifth of october that we are ready for with the exceptional response given and provided by the people when they were beaten i shall remember that there were more than one hundred people beaten by the police on this fight all these we do not stop our claims of politics that we demand also and then we insist it when president bush the man spoke in the Parliament Saying the people was clear on their vote on on the fish of october but still we understand that we need to talk east dispended government willing to talk yes or no that is a simple question but i guess at the very simple answer the Spanish Government in a way has been giving you for a long time now is that theyre not going to talk about this and it seems to me that youve almost backed yourself up into a corner a because you have and the guys the Spanish Government even more they will not speak to you now there is pressure on you because a lot of companies are moving out of of catalonia theyre moving their headquarters out to banks have moved out you do have a mounting debt in catalonia so it seems to me that in a sense the Spanish Government arent going to give an inch on this so that the talk that you wanted to have is just not going to happen whether you had a referendum or not. Well the point is that actually you talk about economy all day all the comments about economy are not only a problem for catalonia as they are is a problem for the spanish economy for the economy to show trying to restrict this to a sitcom stances that only affect the lonia used to really misread the situation were trying to see is that a solution to the Current Situation that we have only can happen only can come if we and the political dialogue on this all threats that we are receiving from the spanish institutions from the Spanish State the sides are not going to solve the problem lets remember very clearly there were millions of people they want to trading in showing their wheels of undertaking a debate on that and obviously the decision was very clear as well there is more than two Million People that were very loudly saying that they want to have cattle on state of cattle and republic even this something that we should be talking about i think it is the i think that is exactly the point so more threats we have today the chief commander of the police well arch simply waiting for the decision of the judge in the audience in the audience of madrid hes somebody believing that increasing the pressure the political depletion of the judicial pressure is going to solve the real problem we have an absolute right now given him tell go and i will claim i insist is very is very serious i will claim this lets go for politics otherwise we are not going to solve the riddle i suppose you know i guess well have to wait what happens on thursday morning but you know if you do declare independence there is a very real chance that madrid will take direct control over catalonia which currently is a semi autonomous region so do you know what you are going to do if you had no breakthrough with the madrid Government Regarding talks by thursday eight a. M. Do you have a plan as to what youre going to do that. Well the problem is more simple than this they are already taking control they are violating their own rules because they are taking control on the cut on finances they are putting them in prison people without having committed any crime they are closing down theyre shutting down websites they are violating also not only the constitutional principles but also the laws are such so from that perspective they are already implementing the article hundred fifty five so they are doing they are violating their own rules so that would we need to put on the table that we need to a stretch this is not depending on what we say on thursday this is actually happening the constant violations of the law of the constitution by this penny side by the Spanish State east something that we need to address politically because from the legality point of view i understand we all see that this is not going to happen anything in a positive sense we have today people declaring in front of the judge without having committed any crime because organizing a referendum is not a crime so thats what we are confronted with there is no separation of powers in this many states there is no respect for the basic laws and the only thing we can address east politically to respond what the people is demanding us to do all thing that this is simply prolonged and prolonged and brought into problems that we understand we should be discussing about this is not going to be solvent thursday because we have been very clear eased the spending government ready willing to talk yes or no we are we are we are ready is the Spanish Government we need to do this these yes or no because thats the only way that we can politically address that problem otherwise we are simply prolonging their incertitude and this is not hyping anyone not a cartilage but not this band has not the rupee and no one you know rahm ever had to learn as a minister of Foreign Affairs assert thank you so much for sharing your views with us here on aljazeera thank you. And the minister of Foreign Affairs was mentioning there catalonia as police chief who is facing charges in madrid lets cross to paul brennan hes live for us in the spanish capital and bring us up to date with that particular case which of course we just heard mentioned by the catalan foreign minister. Thats right now the chief of the Catalan Police more sas called apparel is has come back to the court over my shoulder to be to hear from the judge as to whether or not hes going to be remanded in custody without bail that is sent to prison on suspicion of sedition the allegations against him he basically allowed his Police Officers ordered his Police Officers to enable that referendum to take place a referendum which the madrid government says was both illegal and unconstitutional its going to be an incredibly sensitive decision by the judge in this case you have the popularity that the chief has in catalonia in madrid and elsewhere in spain though he is regarded as something of a hate figure if he is put behind bars then i have to say he in fact i am just being given my book by my producer he is not going to go to jail so the news is just coming out now he is not going to be remanded into custody i suppose that will be a relief for him personally from the governments point of view it will also be a relief because it takes some of the heat out of the situation i think there would have been a reaction on the streets of catalonia barcelona if he had been jailed but nevertheless the pressure remains very much on the catalonian authorities from the madrid government. Both legally and politically in the run up to thursdays deadline paul brennan with the latest on that from madrid thank you. Stay with us here on aljazeera still lots more to come on the