ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Tuesday continued his high-level meetings in Vienna, meeting Austrian Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen.
"We have a very long-lasting relationship with Austria, dating back to many years ago," President Barzani told reporters following his meeting with Bellen, adding that he was in Vienna at the invitation of the Austrian foreign minister.
President Barzani arrived in Vienna on Monday and kicked off high-level meetings the following day. He was received by Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, and the two discussed “enhancing Austria’s relations with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, especially in the fields of economy and commerce,” according to a Kurdistan Region Presidency statement.
“We feel like Austria wants to improve these relations politically and economically. They have opened an embassy in Baghdad. Today, we requested the opening of their consulate [in Erbil] as well,” Barzani said after meeting Bellen.
I’m delighted to meet Austrian President @vanderbellen today in Vienna. We highlighted the historical ties between the Kurdistan Region and Austria and discussed strengthening our partnership. I expressed my gratitude for Austria’s ongoing support to Iraq and the Kurdistan… pic.twitter.com/MGjX29gcLd
— Nechirvan Barzani (@IKRPresident) July 2, 2024
Austria closed its embassy in Baghdad in 1991 over security concerns. The country has had a representation in the Iraqi capital since 2022 and reopened its embassy in September. It does not have a consulate in Erbil but has had a commercial office in the Kurdish capital since 2006.
In response to Rudaw about the results of a joint Iraqi-Kurdish interior ministry investigation on the recent bazaar fires in Erbil, Duhok, and Kirkuk, Barzani held the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) responsible but said that the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) had no connection with the arson as a political entity.
“It is clear that the PKK was behind the subject, behind what happened in Erbil and Kirkuk. There is no proof that the PUK, as a party, is behind the subject,” said Barzani.
“It is possible that there were individuals [with links to PUK who carried out the attack], but as a political force, there is no evidence that the PUK was behind the attack,” he stressed.
On Monday, a joint presser by the Iraqi and Kurdish interior ministries in Baghdad to reveal the results of a bilateral investigation labeled the PKK as the perpetrators of the fires, announcing that three suspects have been arrested in connection with the incidents and have confessed to being PKK members.
Two of the three arrested perpetrators who were “recruited” by the Kurdish group are members of the PUK-affiliated Peshmerga’s Unit 70 forces, as well as the Sulaimani-based Counter-Terrorism Group (CTG), said Hemin Mirany, chief of staff to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) interior ministry.
On Monday, the PUK and PKK both denied responsibility for the fires. The PUK spokesperson said that it was possible that the second suspect was at one time a party member, but not currently.
