|
Iraqi President denies Kurdistan Coalition
plans to quit Maliki govt.
6.1.2008
|
|
|
|
January
6, 2008
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan Region 'Iraq',--
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani denied on Saturday
that the Kurdistan Coalition (KC) was planning to
quit Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's national
unity government due to failure of late last year's
negotiations between the two sides.
"We advocate dialogue and negotiation with Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki in order to reach a solution
for all issues.
There are no plans by the KC to quit the national
unity government," Talabani said in a joint press
conference with Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud
Barzani after their meeting in the Docan retreat in
the Kurdish province of Sulaimaniyah.
The KC is the second largest bloc in Iraq's
parliament with 55 out of a total 275 seats. |
Iraqi President : Jalal Talabani, a Kurd |
A high-ranking delegation led by Iraq's Kurdistan
Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani had paid a
visit to Baghdad early last month for talks with the
central government on article 140 of the Iraqi
constitution pertaining to Kirkuk,www.ekurd.net
the Kurdish peshmerga
forces' appropriations and oil contracts signed by
the autonomous region with a number of foreign
companies, which were objected by the central
government.
According to statements by Kurdish officials then,
the delegation returned to Iraqi Kurdistan with zero
outcome. Meanwhile, Talabani and Barzani denounced
the bombing that occurred in Turkey's predominantly
Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.
"We denounce the bombing and consider it as an act
of antagonism against the Turkish people. We believe
that these criminal operations are carried out by
groups that want to mar Turkish-Kurdish relations,"
Talabani said.
The Iraqi foreign ministry had released a statement
on Saturday in which it strongly condemned the
"terrorist sabotage" in Diyarbakir, which killed or
wounded scores of innocent civilians in Turkey.
Recent months have seen tension in Iraqi-Turkish
relations due to the activities of the Turkey's
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) against the Turkish
forces in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'. Turkey
considers the PKK, or Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan in
Kurdish, as "terrorist" group.
On negotiations with Iran to demark their joint
borders and the fate of the Algiers agreement signed
in 1975 between the two sides, Talabani replied that
"there is an Iraqi delegation in Iran at the moment
to negotiate this affair."
The Iraqi leader dismissed reports that the United
States has anything to do with the negotiations.
"Don't forget that it was (the former U.S. Secretary
of State) Henry Kissinger who engineered the Algiers
agreement," Talabani said.
The Iraqi and Iranian sides are now having
negotiations on the re-demarcation of borders,
including the Shatt al-Arab area, away from the
Algiers agreement, some of whose items are objected
by the Iraqi sides.
The agreement caused ignited a crisis between the
two neighboring countries last month after Talabani
gave statements taken by the Iranian side as an
announcement to cancel the agreement.
VOI
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 