Lavrov, Kurdistan leader discuss situation in Iraq

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Massoud Barzani, President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, who is currently in Russia for a working visit, considered on Friday “the level of cooperation achieved between Russia and the Iraqi Kurdistan in trade, economic and cultural-humanitarian spheres with an accent on ways to expand and diversify it,” sources from the Russian Foreign Ministry report. “Discussing the situation in Iraq and in the Middle East on the whole, the Russian side emphasized that it is necessary that all Iraqi political forces settle the emerging problems peacefully, abandoning categorical and irreconcilable stances,” the sources stressed in remarks relayed by Russian Itar-Tass news agency today. “Lavrov urged the Kurd leader to continue playing a constructive role in building a non-confrontation inter-Iraqi dialogue with an aim to settle the existing differences and stabilize the situation in the country as soon as possible”. In exchanging opinions on the situation in Iraq’s neighbor Syria, Lavrov “confirmed Russia’s fundamental stance that there is no alternative to the process of negotiations between the government of the Syrian Arab Republic and the opposition on the basis of the Geneva Communiqu? of the Action Group of June 30, 2012,” the sources said.