PM Barzani is set to meet Chancellor Merkel

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani is scheduled to meet with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel along with the ministers for foreign affairs and defense in a few days to discuss bilateral relations and the outstanding issues between the Kurdish and Iraqi governments.

The visit is at the invitation of the German Federal Government.

PM Barzani will head a high-level delegation to discuss the bilateral relations, the war against ISIS, and the plight of the refugees and the Iraqi displaced with German officials, KRG's Department of Foreign Affairs stated on Saturday.

The two sides will also discuss a "mechanism to resolve the issues between Erbil and Baghdad," the statement explained, adding that the Kurdish government will emphasize KRG's continued call to address their disagreement with Baghdad through dialogue in peaceful way.

The Iraqi government has so far avoided committing on holding negotiations with the KRG after the ill-fated Kurdish vote on independence despite international pressure, including by France and the United Kingdom.

Germany's Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel cancelled a trip to Iraq in early November after the Iraqi government blocked him from visiting Erbil to meet with KRG officials.

The KRG delegation will meet with FM Gabriel and the German defense minister Ursula von der Leyen during the visit.

Germany's new parliament on Tuesday voted to continue training Kurdish Peshmerga only through April 2018, while allocating €6.9 million for the program. Defense minister von der Leyen stated that she wants to see this and other such programs elsewhere in the world being extended for a year, adding that the Kurdish Peshmerga are well capable of defending their "homeland."

Minister von der Leyen visited the Kurdistan Region three times since the start of the war against ISIS in 2014.

PM Barzani, who landed in Paris in early December for his first foreign tour following the Kurdish referendum, has also received an invitation from the British Prime Minister Theresa May to visit London in the future.

The Kurdistan Region has stated that it respects the all rulings issued by the Iraqi Federal Court that concluded the vote null and void, and unconstitutional. The Iraqi government insists that it should take control of the Kurdish oil export and the KRG's international borders including the airports of Erbil and Sulaimani before talks begin.

An Iraqi-imposed ban on international flights to and from the Kurdistan Region imposed by Iraq in late September remains in place.

PM Barzani and the KRG delegation, which refused to use Baghdad airport in early December when visiting France, crossed into Turkey by land and then took a flight to Paris.

Up to 150 German soldiers train the Kurdish forces in the Kurdistan Region. They have trained more than 16,000 Kurdish soldiers since February 2015 as a member of the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.