Maliki arrives in Sulaimaniya to attend PUK congress

SULAIMANIYA / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki arrived in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya on Tuesday morning to attend ceremonies of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan congress inaugural session, a member of the PUK politburo said. “Prime Minister Maliki will attend the 3rd PUK congress, to kick off today (June 1),” Saadi Ahmed Pira told IraqiNews.com news agency. Maliki had arrived in Arbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Iraq Kurdistan region, on Monday and met with the region’s president, Massoud Barazani. The PUK will convene a congress in Sulaimaniya, where its leader, Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president, will run again for the party chairmanship. The PUK, established in 1967, had convened two congresses, the first in 1992 after the uprising in Iraqi Kurdistan, and the second in 2001. AmR (P)/SR 1