Iran said Sunday it had blocked all flights to and from Iraq's Kurdistan at the request of Baghdad, a day before the autonomous region holds an independence referendum that Tehran opposes.

"At the request of the central government of Iraq, all flights from Iran to Sulaymaniyah and Arbil, as well as all flights through our airspace originating from the Kurdistan region, have been stopped," official news agency IRNA quoted the spokesman for the Supreme National Security Council, Keivan Khosravi, as saying