Maliki to meet Kurdish PM on Tuesday

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will meet with Prime Minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Negrevan Barzani, before his meeting with Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Tuesday afternoon, said a cabinet source on Monday. “Maliki will meet Barzani on Tuesday (Mar. 24) before his meeting with Gul,” the source told IraqiNews.com news agency, noting that Barzani will attend Gul-Maliki’s meeting. “The meeting will tackle pending issues and means to boost Turkish-Iraqi ties and the thorny issue of the PKK as well as activating cooperation council between Iraq and Turkey,” he added. The PKK, or Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan in Kurdish, which is banned in Turkey, has been leading an armed campaign inside Turkey since 1984. Iraqi border areas in the Kurdistan region, adjacent to Turkey and Iran, are coming under occasional Turkish air attacks and Iranian artillery shelling allegedly to strike the strongholds of the PKK and the PJAK ( Partiya Jiyana Azada Kurdistanê in Kurdish or Kurdistan Free Life Party), both are against Turkey and Iran respectively. Relations were sharply tested last year when Turkish forces crossed into Iraq in pursuit of PKK. SH (P)/SR 1