HARDBALL: Iran Shuts Kurdistan Border, Erdogan Threatens to Invade: ‘Troops Could Arrive One Night.’

Iraq’s Kurds will go ahead with a referendum on independence on Monday because their partnership with Baghdad has failed, Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani said on Sunday, shrugging off international opposition to the vote.

In response, the Iraqi government asked the autonomous Kurdish region to hand over control of its international border posts, its international airports and called on foreign countries to stop importing Kurdish crude oil.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said it did not recognize the referendum and would view its outcome regarding a future Kurdistan as null and void, adding that the Iraqi Kurdish government was threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and the whole region.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is threatening a military intervention in Iraq in response to the Iraqi Kurdish region’s referendum on independence from Baghdad.

This is going to be much more difficult than it would have been if President Bush had gotten behind an independent Iraqi Kurdistan back in 2003.