ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Top Kurdish leaders on Sunday condemned the assassination attempt against former US President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani said he was “deeply disturbed” by the attack on Trump.
“I condemn the use of violence to resolve political disputes. Violence should have no place in today’s politics,” wrote President Barzani on X, “My thoughts are with President Trump, his family, and all the victims affected by this attack.”
President Barzani met Trump while he was in office at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2020.
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani also condemned the “senseless act of terrorism” and wished the former president a speedy recovery.
“We stand in solidarity with the United States,” said the Kurdish premier.
Prime Minister Barzani made a high-level visit to the US capital in February.
While giving a campaign speech at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, several shots were fired at the former president, with at least one of the bullets clipping his right ear. He was quickly swarmed by security officers and escorted off-stage.
The shooter, identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was “neutralized” by agents after having “fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside the rally,” according to the Secret Service.
Trump said in a social media post on Sunday that he is looking forward to speaking from Wisconsin this week at the Republican National Convention.
Trump, a business tycoon and former TV personality from New York, served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
The last assassination attempt of a US presidential candidate or president was when then-President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
