KRG team in Washington for talks

WASHINGTON

A delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is in Washington to hold meetings with U.S. officials, including senators, congressmen, think tank policy researchers and companies to update them on developments in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq and the wider region.

Minister Falah Mustafa Bakir, Head of the Department of Foreign Relations, and Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the KRG High Representative to the U.K., met Brett McGurk, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iran and Iraq at the Department of State, and Kelly Clements, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration, the KRG website reported.

Bakir briefed the officials on the forthcoming elections in the Kurdish region, Iraq-wide elections that are due to take place in spring next year, as well as the Syrian refugee crisis. The Kurdish delegation called on the United States and the international community to do more to help the KRG to manage the influx of refugees fleeing the violence in the civil war.

McGurk and Clements praised the KRG’s response to the refugee crisis and said that the United States would provide more assistance and would help to highlight the situation in the region. More than 50,000 refugees, believed to be mainly Syrian Kurds, have entered Iraq last month.

During their visit, Bakir and Abdul Rahman also met Turkey’s Ambassador to the United States Namık Tan. They discussed the Syrian crisis, the growing trade between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey, as well as the forthcoming elections in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. Both sides reiterated their government’s commitment to a long-term and broad relationship.