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Lavrov holding closed-door talks with Iraqi Kurdistan prime minister

Earlier in the day, the Russian top diplomat visited the Iraqi capital city Baghdad where he had talks with the Foreign Minister, the parliament speaker and the Prime Minister

ERBIL /Iraq/, October 7. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq Masrour Barzani have begun talks in Erbil.

Lavrov and Barzani exchanged greetings and continued their talks behind closed doors.

Earlier in the day, the Russian top diplomat visited the Iraqi capital city Baghdad where he had talks with Foreign Minister Mohamed Ali Alhakim, parliament speaker Mohammed Al-Halbusi and Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi.

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq, also known as Iraqi Kurdistan, is an autonomous region, with its status enshrined in the country’s constitution. Frictions between Baghdad and Erbil aggravated after the September 25, 2017 Kurdish independence referendum. Baghdad was strongly against this referendum and recognized the voting results as illegitimate. It entailed a political crisis, with a partial suspension of air service and closure of land borders with the autonomy. In January 2018, central government and regional officials began a dialogue to remove the frictions. Iraqi Kurdistan’s borders were opened again.

The leaders of Iraq’s Kurdish Autonomy represent the Barzani clan. The informal leader is an old-timer of Kurdish politics, Masoud Barzani. The autonomy’s president is his nephew Nechirvan Barzani, and prime minister, Masoud’s son Masrour Barzani.

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