Baghdad / NINA /- The head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Bafel Talabani, revealed his party's orientations for the next stage, stressing the continuation of negotiations to form a strong government in the Kurdistan Region.

Talabani said, during his participation in a dialogue session on the second day of the Baghdad International Dialogue Conference, today, Sunday, that "after announcing the results of the Kurdish elections for the regional parliament, we have a complex task and there are ongoing dialogues to form the government, which is better than before. As for the distribution of positions, we focus on strategic alliances and future directions."

He added, "We made many promises before the elections, but what we want to do are not electoral promises that end with the formation of the government. We want better relations with Baghdad and to achieve the interests of our people," indicating that "the Kurdistan Democratic Party will appreciate the presence of a strong partner, despite obtaining the majority, but I believe that it is positive and puts us in the balance of joint work."

He continued, "There are many variables and the Kurds have always been united, and it is better for them when there is a unified Kurdish bloc working together, and I am optimistic that we will be able to form a new government in Kurdistan."

Regarding the crisis of paying salaries to Kurdistan employees, Talabani explained, "There are different paths regarding the demonstrations in Sulaymaniyah, and this protest is the right of the people in Kurdistan and they are worried about their salaries, we do not want to arrest any of the demonstrators and we do not want them to die of hunger."

He added, "The decision to localize salaries is due to the lack of trust, and we have ongoing negotiations regarding the localization of salaries as well as the "Hisabi" file, and there are important efforts from the regional government regarding the financial procedures for my account, and Masrour Barzani stated that "Hisabi" was transferred to Sulaymaniyah and there is a difference in the procedures from Erbil, due to technical issues that we were not fully aware of, and we need to raise awareness and educate people to show the advantages of this file."

Economically, Talabani stressed that "Kurdistan is a region rich in oil and gas, but the real wealth of Iraq and Kurdistan is the educated class of the people," noting that "the challenges of falling oil prices and fears of difficulty in paying salaries, push us to search for alternatives and diversify sources of income, and there are ongoing negotiations to advance the wheel of reconstruction in Kurdistan and Iraq."

Regarding the file of the upcoming parliamentary elections, Talabani explained, "We look forward to good participation and we will do something different and new, which is to form a strong unified Kurdish bloc that will go to the elections in Iraq with the Democratic Party and with the Kurdish blocs, to achieve the interests of the Kurds and we will talk to the blocs to proceed with that."

He added, "The presence of some groups outside the framework of the state system makes us lose the investment opportunities that we want to rebuild the country and the well-being of our people, and this is unacceptable and we must bear responsibility for that," calling on the government to have constructive dialogues with those groups.

Regarding the status of the disputed areas, he said, "We have many components, sects and diversity in the Kurdish and Iraqi society, and we must welcome this diversity, because implementing the articles of the constitution helps solve the problems in the disputed areas."

Regarding the international changes in the region, Talabani saw that "many countries are happy with the change in Syria, and everyone is rushing towards Syria, but Western countries must be more cautious and provide more guarantees to care for Christians, Alawites and Druze in Syria, and the new Syrian constitution must be written to take into account all the rights of these minorities and components."

Regarding the peace process between the PKK and the Turkish government, he explained that "there has been a war going on for 40 years, but dialogue and negotiations are the right way to achieve reconciliation, and we hope that peace will be a good opportunity for that and I call on the international community to support this process."

He added, "No Kurdish group can do what we do as the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in negotiations, dialogue and peace, and we extend our hands to everyone before others."

Regarding the partnership with Christians, Talabani stressed that “Christians are an important part of Iraq, and their numbers are starting to decrease, and Ryan al-Kildani is a brave man, I love him. They have been ignored for a long time by the West and the countries of Christ, and I encourage everyone to cooperate with Christians. Yes, there are American sanctions on Ryan, and I support him and he helps me, and he has a popular base. We remain and support our friends always.”/End





ليصلك المزيد من الأخبار اشترك بقناتنا على التليغرام