BAGHDAD/TEHRAN: Iraq is prepared to intervene militarily if the Kurdish region’s planned independence referendum results in violence, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told the Associated Press in an interview. If the Iraqi population is “threatened by the use of force outside the law, then we will intervene militarily,” he said Saturday.

Iraq’s Kurdish region plans to hold the referendum on support for independence from Iraq on Sept. 25 in three governorates that make up their autonomous region, and in disputed areas controlled by Kurdish forces but claimed by Baghdad.

“If you challenge the constitution and if you challenge the borders of Iraq and the borders of the region, this is a public invitation to the countries in the region to violate Iraqi borders as well, which is a very dangerous escalation,” Abadi said.

The leaders of Iraq’s Kurdish region have said they hope the referendum will push Baghdad to come to the negotiating table and create a path for independence. However, Abadi said such negotiations would likely be complicated by the referendum vote.

“It will make it harder and more difficult,” he said, but added, “I will never close the door to negotiations. Negotiations are always possible.”

Iraq’s Kurds have come under increasing pressure from regional powers, the U.S. and Baghdad to call off the vote.

Iran Sunday warned that independence for Iraqi Kurdistan would mean an end to all border, military and security arrangements with the regional government.

“Border agreements stand only with the central government of Iraq, and secession of Kurdistan region from the central government of Iraq would mean the blocking of all shared border crossings,” Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told the state broadcaster IRIB.

Although the referendum would not be legally binding, Shamkhani said that any move toward independence could lead to Iran disregarding rules of engagement along the border.

“Iran would then prepare itself to enter areas deeper than the border in response to anti-security actions,” he said, referring to regular attacks by Iran’s own Kurdish separatists based in Iraqi territory.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet Abadi this week to discuss concerns about the referendum.

With the largest Kurdish population in the region, Turkey fears that a “yes” vote would fuel separatism in its southeast, where militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have waged an insurgency for three decades. Tensions between Irbil and Baghdad have flared in the lead-up to the Sept. 25 vote.

Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, has repeatedly threatened violence if Iraqi troops or Shiite militias attempt to move into disputed territories that are now under the control of Kurdish fighters known as peshmerga, specifically the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

“It’s chaotic there,” Mohammad Mahdi al-Bayati, a senior leader of Al-Hashd al-Shaabi, a Shiite paramilitary group, said earlier this week, describing Kirkuk ahead of the vote. Bayati’s forces – sanctioned by Baghdad, but many with close ties to Iran – are deployed around Kirkuk as well as around other disputed territories in Iraq’s north.

“Everyone is under pressure,” he said, explaining that he feared a rogue group of fighters could trigger larger clashes. “Anything could be the spark that burns it all down.”

Abadi said he is focused on legal responses to the Kurdish referendum on independence. Earlier this week Iraq’s Parliament rejected the referendum in a vote boycotted by Kurdish lawmakers.

Iraq’s Kurds established a regional government in 1992 after the U.S. enforced a no-fly zone across the north following the Gulf War. After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion ousted former leader Saddam Hussein, the region secured constitutional recognition of its autonomy, but remained part of the Iraqi state.

When asked if he would ever accept an independent Kurdistan, Abadi said, “It’s not up to me, this is a constitutional” matter.

“If [Iraq’s Kurds] want to go along that road, they should work toward amending the constitution,” Abadi said. “In that case we have to go all the way through Parliament and a referendum to the whole Iraqi people. For them to call for only the Kurds to vote, I think this is a hostile move toward the whole of the Iraqi population,” he said.