Iraqi Kurdish PM holds talks with Turkish gov’t

Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani met with Turkish government figures in Ankara and Istanbul on Dec. 19, amid efforts to boost cooperation against Islamist jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

Barzani first arrived in Istanbul, where he met with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoğlu. The two leaders held a closed-door meeting in the Dolmabahçe Palace, but no official statements were released about the content of the meeting, which continued for one-and-a-half hours.

The Kurdish leader then flew to the capital Ankara and met separately with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is set to visit Turkey on Dec. 25-26 in order to participate in a meeting of the High-Level Cooperation Council between the two countries’ Cabinets.