Kurdish president meets with Barack Obama

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani and his accompanying delegation on Tuesday, April 7, met with Barack Obama, the President of the United States of America, said a statement on Wednesday. “During the meeting, they discussed the general situation in Iraq and Kurdistan Region and ways of reinforcing the U.S- Kurdistan Region relations,” said the statement received by IraqiNews.com news agency. “Both sides emphasized the importance of the strong friendship relations between the Kurdish and U.S people,” it added. Obama had arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday (April 7) on a surprise visit to the country. The U.S. president had talks with Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani, his two deputies, Adel Abdulmahdi and Tareq al-Hashemi, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his deputy, Burham Saleh. Tangible progress has been made in Iraq, but the leaders of Iraq’s political factions still need to exert much effort to settle their differences, Obama said during a press conference at Camp Victory near Baghdad’s main airport. Obama later left Iraq wrapping up a several hours’ visit to Iraq. SH (S) 1