Positive atmosphere in Barzani’s meeting with Change Movement’s Leader

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A rare meeting between Iraqi Kudistan’s President, Massoud Barzani, and the Leader of Kurdistan’s opposition Goran (Change) Movement, Nowshirwan Mustpha, has taken place in Sulaimaniya city on Friday under positive atmospheres, a source close to the meeting reported.   “The bilateral meeting, held by Kurdistan President, Massoud Barzani and the Leader of Goran (Change) Movement, Nowshirwan Mustapha, has ended this (Friday) morning and most of its time had been allocated to improve the relationship between the Kurdistan Presidency and the Kurdish Opposition Movement,” the source told IraqiNews.com news agency,” stressing that “the meeting was held under positive atmospheres.”   He said that Barzani had said that he would meet next week with the parties, represented in Kurdistan Parliament, to discuss the reform project in Kurdistan and its positive activation.   The same source said that the “meeting took place in response to a demand by Barzani, during his current visit for Sulaimaniya,” adding that “the Movement had welcomed the meeting, which it said would carry out discussing the situation in Kurdistan Region, and the relationship between the Kurdistan Government and the Opposition Movement, in order to achieve a progress in their relations and the beginning of a new phase between both sides.”   The last meeting between Barzani and Nowshirwan Mustapha was held in 2007 in Sulaimaniya, when the latter used to hold the post of Deputy-Chairman of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, before he split from PUK and formed the Goran (Change) Movement, that scored 25 seats in the legislative elections that took place in Kurdistan in 2009, out of the Kurdistan Parliament’s 111 seats.   The talks between the 3 Kurdish opposition parties, the Goran (Change), the Islamic Group and the Islamic Union, and the two ruling parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) were held in the background of the political crisis witnessed after Feb. 17 th demonstrations in Sulaimaniya, that demanded political reforms and an end for corruption and achieving social justice, during which clashes took place causing several victims.   SKH (FT)   268