President of Iraqi Kurdistan Region Clarifies on Erbil Talks

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The Presidency of Iraq's Kurdistan Region revealed that it had no knowledge of the "Peace and Recovery" meeting on Friday, which witnessed calls for normalization, explaining that the outcomes of the meeting do not express the opinion, policy, or position of the Kurdistan Region.

The Presidency issued a statement in which it said that any issue, position, or inclination related to foreign policy is a prerogative of the federal government in accordance with the constitution and that the Kurdistan Region is "fully committed to the Iraqi foreign policy."

It called on all Iraqi parties and forces to deal with the issue in a calmer manner and to await the results of the investigation carried out by the Ministry of Interior of the Kurdistan government.

Earlier on Saturday, the Ministry of Interior of the Kurdistan Regional Government announced that the meeting was held without the knowledge, approval, or participation of the regional government, stressing that it does not express in any way the government's position.

It added in a statement that the necessary measures will be taken to follow up on how this meeting was held.

For its part, the Israeli media revealed that those who met in Iraq are marginal parties, and Kurdistan has always had relations with it.

This comes after the head of the Iraq Awakening, Wissam Al-Hardan, who is from the Dulaim tribe, held a conference in Erbil and gave a speech Friday evening in which he publicly called for normalization with "Israel" in the presence of tribal figures from 6 governorates (Baghdad, Mosul, Anbar, Salah al-Din, Babil, and Diyala). 

Several political forces denounced the meeting, including the Iraqi government, which expressed its categorical rejection of the illegal meetings held by some tribal figures residing in the city of Erbil in the Kurdistan Region in which they raise the slogan of normalization with "Israel".