The former President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Masoud Barzani, facilitated the Iraqi Kurdistan independence referendum in September 2017. This invoked the Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi to demand that the referendum result be cancelled, and called on the KRG to initiate dialogue "in the framework of the constitution".[2] In October, Iraq began to move its forces into areas seized by the KRG after the entry of ISIL, and all the disputed areas outside the Kurdish Region, including Kirkuk.[3][4]