President of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani on Wednesday met with US Consul General Irvin Hicks Jr. and UK Ambassador to Iraq Mark Bryson-Richardson separately.
“The UK ambassador welcomed the meeting between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and expressed his country’s support for dialogue between the two sides and resolving the issues through dialogue,” read a statement from the Presidency’s office.
President Barzani discussed the same topic during his meeting with the US mission in Erbil, during which “the US Consul General welcomed and expressed his country’s support for dialogue and attempts to resolve issues between both sides,” according to a statement from the Presidency.
The politburos of the KDP and the PUK held a high-level meeting in the latter’s stronghold of Sulaimani on Saturday, with the delegations consisting of key ministers and politburo members, as well as Qubad Talabani, the deputy prime minister of the Kurdistan Region.
The KDP and the PUK have been at loggerheads in recent months over the Region’s parliamentary elections, the transparency of the oil and local income of the provinces under their influence, and the assassination of a former PUK colonel in Erbil in October.
Despite working together in the KRG, the two parties have established control over different parts of the Region, often being referred to as the “Yellow Zone” and “Green Zone“. The KDP is dominant in Erbil and Duhok provinces, while the PUK rules Sulaimani and Halabja.
