Northern Iraq's Kurdish region will "certainly" vote on independence and it is only a matter of time until it does, the region's leader pledged during a visit to Washington D.C. on Wednesday, adding his hopes for Turkey's reconciliation process to be finalized soon to end the decades-long conflict in the country.Referring to the ongoing conflict with the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), the Kurdistan Regional Government President Masoud Barzani said,"right now our country is in a fight against ISIS, the fight is not over, but that is why the issue of a referendum has been delayed. Of course the referendum will take place."Barzani was speaking in Washington after holding talks earlier with U.S. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on issues that included the campaign to battle ISIS. The White House said that in those talks, Obama and Biden stressed that Washington supports "a united, federal and democratic Iraq."A vote to break away from Baghdad is strongly opposed by the central government, which challenges the region's authority to hold a referendum. Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq is rich in oil and gas deposits that Baghdad is keen to control.There are also fears that complete Kurdish self-rule could pave the way for other ethnic groups to seek independence. However, Barzani maintained there was little doubt that there would eventually be an independent Kurdish state. "I cannot predict whether it will be next year or when, but certainly an independent Kurdistan is coming," he said.Barzani, who has led the regional government since 2005, also promised that Kurdish peshmerga fighters, who have been instrumental in combating ISIS and reversing some of the extremists' successes, would not abandon the conflıct.The battle to recover Mosul from the jihadists is likely to be the next major confrontation. The city, Iraq's second largest, has been under ISIS control since Iraqi government forces fled in June last year. "So long as the terrorists of ISIS are in Mosul, they will be a direct threat to the Kurdistan region," Barzani said. "We will do whatever we can in order to help liberate Mosul."Touching on the reconciliation process between the Turkish government and the PKK, which seeks to end decades of violence, Barzani said the efforts to broker peace were "an important part" of Irbil's relationship with Ankara. "We hope that a peaceful solution will be found for the Kurdish question in Turkey," he said.In a statement on Barzani's meeting with Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the State Department said Blinken had emphasized the U.S.'s "strong and continued support to a united, federal and democratic Iraq."