Al-Dabbagh meets Barzani in Arbil

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: Speaker of the Iraqi government and a leader of Dawlat al-Qanoon, Ali al-Dabbagh, held on Monday a meeting with President of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, in Arbil on the ongoing talks to form the new government, according to a presidential statement. “Al-Dabbagh and Barzani discussed in Salah el-Din resort in Arbil the ongoing talks and attempts between political blocs to form the government of national unity,” said the statement received by IraqiNews.com news agency. “The meeting focused also on the relations between federal and the region’s governments,” the statement added. The Iraqi political chessboard has been witnessing a crisis for seven months now after the country’s legislative elections in March 2010 as Iyad Allawi’s al-Iraqiya bloc and incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law bloc both insist on the right to form a government. SH (P) 1