ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani has postponed a planned visit to Washington this week because of other commitments, said his chief of staff, Fuad Hussein.
“President Barzani told Joe Biden (the US vice president) that because of some other commitments he couldn’t visit Washington at this time,” Hussein told Rudaw. “That is why the visit was postponed.”
He said that Biden and Barzani had agreed that “the visit should take place at a more convenient time.”
Barzani was scheduled to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington on Friday, but the trip was postponed after a telephone conversation with Biden.
Hussein dismissed claims that Barzani’s decision was taken because Obama had been too busy for a meeting. “It is that President Barzani didn’t find the time suitable for such a visit, not that Obama didn’t have time,” Hussein said.
Iraq’s Kurds backed the 2003 US invasion of Iraq that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein. Since then, the autonomous Kurds in northern Iraq have maintained strong diplomatic relations with Washington.
In 2012, Barzani met Obama at the White House, reaffirming Erbil-Washington ties.
"The United States is committed to our close and historic relationship with Kurdistan and the Kurdish people, in the context of our strategic partnership with a federal, democratic and unified Iraq," the White House said in a statement after the visit.
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