Talabani arrives in Baghdad, meets political leaders Sunday

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani arrived in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Saturday coming from the Kurdish province of al-Sulaimaniya, according to a presidential release. “Talabani arrived in Baghdad. He indicated during a press conference he held at the Sulaimaniya airport before flying to Baghdad that his meetings with leaders of the Iraqi political blocs would start on Sunday with the aim of activating the role of political institutions in the country like the Executive Council and the Political Council for National Security (PCNS),” read the statement as received by IraqiNews.com. “The president will also weigh the possibility of resuscitating national alliances and developing joint action with the government for solving problems,” it added. Talabani, a Kurd, had returned to the Iraqi Kurdistan region on September 29 via the Arbil airport after two months in the United States to undergo a heart surgery. The modern city of Sulaimaniya, 364 kilometers north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, was founded in 1748 by a Kurdish prince known as Ibrahim Pasha Baban who named it for his father Sulaiman Pasha. Since being founded as the capital of a powerful Kurdish principality it has grown to about 1,800,000 people. Sulaimaniya, known as Zamwa prior to its founding, is the cultural center of the Sorani-speaking Kurds and an important economic centre for Iraqi Kurdistan. AmR (S) 1