Palestinian president’s visit historic event – Massoud Barzani

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: President of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, on Monday described the visit of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as ‘a historic event,’ asserting that the Kurdish leadership seeks to develop bilateral ties for the good of the two people. Speaking at a joint press conference with Abbas, Barzani said “the visit will foster relations between Kurds and Palestinians.” “The path Abbas passes through will realize the Palestinian people aims,” he added, noting that Abbas is the first Arab president visits Kurdistan. For his part, the Palestinian leader said that “we talked in details about the situation in Iraq and we are happy about efforts exerted by Egypt in helping Palestinian and hope that such effort would continue. “We discussed means to activate relations,” he said, inviting Barzani to visit Palestine. President of the Palestinian authority Mahmoud Abbas made a surprise visit to Arbil City today Monday April 13th, 2009. He was received in Arbil International Airport by Kurdistan region President Massoud Barzani, Kurdistan RegionG deputy premier Emad Ahmed and a number of Kurdistan RegionG ministers. Later, Presidents Barzani and Mahmoud Abbas held a meeting in the presence of Kurdistan RegionG premier Negervan Barzani, deputy premier Emad Ahmed, Kurdistan parliament’s speaker Adnan Mufti and Kurdistan RegionG ministers of Interior and Transportation. They discussed the bilateral relations between Kurdistan region and Palestine in all the fields and the current developments in the area. SH (S)/SR 1