Iraqi PM meets Kurdish regional PM first time after referendum

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi Saturday met with the Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani for the first time since the controversial independence referendum last year, Kurdish media said.
Abadi received Barzani, who was accompanied by his deputy Qubad Talabani and Fuad Hussein, head of the regional presidency office, the Kurdish Rudaw Media Network said in a brief report.
The meeting between the two sides is still underway, Rudaw said.
Abadi’s office and the Iraqi official media had no reports about the meeting so far.
The meeting is the first such kind between the two side, as tensions have been running high between Baghdad and Kurdistan’s regional capital Erbil after the Kurds held the referendum on the independence of the Kurdistan region and disputed areas on Sept. 25, 2017.