PM Erdoğan meets with Iraqi Parliament speaker

ANKARA / BAGHDAD - Anatolia News Agency

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has met Iraqi Parliament Speaker Usame al-Nujaifi in Ankara. The meeting in the Prime Ministry was closed to the press and lasted for two hours.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi Cabinet accepted the suggestions of the commission that was established to investigate the circumstances of the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s visit to Kirkuk last month, including the replacement Turkey’s Mosul consul. The commission claimed that the consul had not informed the Foreign Ministry about accepting a foreign delegation. Ali Mousavi, the spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said permission must be sought from the central government for visits to the Kurdistan Regional Government. Davutoğlu’s visit to Kirkuk on Aug. 2 drew a furious reaction from Baghdad and brought already-chilly relations between the countries to a new low. Iraq’s foreign ministry responded to the visit by saying “it is not in the interest of Turkey or any other party to underestimate the national sovereignty and violate the rules of international relations.”