Salah Al-Din, Iraq, 23 May 2007 - President of Kurdistan Region Massoud Barzani yesterday met the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq (SRSG) Ashraf Qazi in Salah Al-Din, north of Erbil. During the meeting, many issues were discussed, especially national reconciliation, constitution review, implementation of article 140, and progress in addressing human rights, the needs of displaced Iraqis, as well as provision of humanitarian and public services in northern Iraq.
Mr. Qazi expressed his satisfaction over his wide ranging discussions with Mr. Barzani and other senior officials of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), including Deputy Prime Minister Omar Fattah, Speaker Adnan Al-Mufti, Deputy Speaker Kamal Kirkuki, Minister of Region for the Interior Karim Sinjari, President Barzani's Chief of Staff Fouad Hussein and The Executive Chief of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Politburo Mulla Bukhtiar. He reiterated that the United Nations is committed to assisting Iraq in political reconciliation and physical reconstruction in accordance with Security Council resolution 1546. He stressed that all of the United Nations activities throughout Iraq were at the request of the Iraqi Government and that consensus was a prerequisite for the United Nations to expand its programmes and technical support. He thanked the KRG for its ongoing support for the work of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and commended the work of Dr. Dindar Zebari, Council of Ministers Advisor for United Nations and International Organizations Affairs.
Mr. Qazi noted that the United Nations will continue to make every effort possible to put all the resources available in order to assist the Iraqis in the reconstruction process and to push forward the political process within the legal and constitutional framework pursuant to Security Council resolution 1546.