Iraqi Kurdistan president meets Negroponte, Crocker

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Kurdistan region President Massoud Barazani met on Saturday evening with visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and U.S. ambassador in Baghdad Ryan Crocker to discuss the Iraqi-U.S. long-term security agreement, according to the region’s presidential cabinet chief. “Barazani received Negroponte and Crocker at his office as soon as they arrived in Arbil city,” Fouad Hussein told IraqiNews.com. “The Iraqi-U.S. long-term security agreement and the political situation in Iraq and Kurdistan were among the issues tackled during the meeting,” he said. “It is planned that the two sides will have a press conference on today after the meeting,” he noted. Arbil, also written Erbil or Irbil, is believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited in the world and is one of the largest cities in Iraq. The city lies eighty kilometers (fifty miles) east of Mosul. In 2005, its estimated population was 990,000 inhabitants. The city is the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region and the Kurdistan Regional Government Kurdistan RegionG). It hosts the headquarters of the Kurdistan region ministers and parliament. Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, only isolated, sporadic violence has hit Arbil, unlike many other areas of Iraq. MH (S)/AmR 1