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KRG Prime MinisterBreaks Ice in Baghdad

Iraqi Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani’s Baghdad visit seemed to offer glimmers of hope for resolving tensions between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region, writes Mustafa al-Kadhimi.
Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani speaks during the first International Energy Arena in Arbil, about 350 km (217 miles) north of Baghdad, May 20, 2012. Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region expects to start exporting oil from its fields along a new pipeline to the Turkish border when the line is complete in August 2013, the region's natural resources minister Ashti Hawrami said on Sunday.   REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani (IRAQ - Tags : - Tags: ENERGY POLITICS) - RTR32CEM
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Hopes were not high for Prime Minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani’s visit to Baghdad. The potential of this visit to soothe the escalating tensions between the federal government and the Kurdistan region, as well as the rest of Iraq’s crises, was questioned.

The visit, however, surpassed all expectations when an agreement on solving thorny problems between both parties through laws and the constitution was announced by the Iraqi government following the meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Barzani.

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