美国有线新闻 CNN 伊拉克库尔德公投支持独立 多国欲强制（在线收听）

Jumping right into the CNN 10 today, we're taking you to the Middle East where an ethnic group has repeatedly voted for its independence but may not be likely to get it.

In the nation of Iraq, home to more than 39 million people, about 15 percent to 20 percent of the population is Kurdish. This is Iraq's largest ethnic minority.

Kurds have been active in the fight against the ISIS terrorist group. They governed a region in northern Iraq called Kurdistan. And this week, they held a referendum, a vote on independence, which a Kurdish political leader said resulted in a yes.

Kurds have sought their own country for decades, but several nations, from Iraq to the United States, opposed the Kurdish vote. Some concerns are concerned that it can lead to more instability or even ethnic fighting in the region and Iraq is concerned that it would lose a significant source of oil and a large chunk of territory if Kurdistan becomes independent.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Even as many here continue to ride the waves of post-referendum euphoria, leaders in the region and beyond are making their feelings increasingly clear, this is the referendum nobody wanted to happen. With both Turkey and the central government in Iraq threatening to turn off the tap on Kurdistan's oil exports and the Syrian foreign minister saying that this is an unacceptable. The hope had been for the Kurdish leadership that this referendum would give them a mandate to negotiate with Baghdad's central government.

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al Abadi says not only is that not going to happen, but that his parliament has now given him the empowerment to have all options on the table, including the use of force to protect what they're calling Iraq's territorial integrity.