I’m not in Arbil to press on Kurds – US ambassador

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher R. Hill said on Tuesday that his current visit to Arbil city does not aim at putting pressures on the Kurdish leadership to give concessions to Baghdad with respect to suspended issues between Arabs and Kurds. “I don’t carry any message, and I’m not making an attempt to press on Kurds,” Hill said in a meeting with journalists in Arbil, the capital city of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, including a reporter of IraqiNews.com news agency. He said that he had an important meeting yesterday with the Kurdish President Masaod Barazani. “Suspended issues between Arabs and Kurds are political, not related to U.S. withdrawal from Iraq,” Hill said. He said that the Baghdad – Arbil relations require more work to solve pending issues. “We are optimistic that relations between the two sides will be improved after parliamentary election (March 7, 2010),” Hill said. He said that suspended issues between Arabs and Kurds in Iraq should be solved according to a mentality that belongs to the 21st century, not the 19th. MH (S)/SR 1