US welcomes PKK leaders call to lay down arms

The United States has welcomed a call by the jailed leader of outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to lay down arms as the organization negotiates a peace settlement.
US State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said the US would obviously welcome all steps in support of a peaceful resolution in the conflict with the Kurds, which had claimed more than 40,000 lives so far and turned Turkey's Southeast into a dead zone for investment for decades. She commended the efforts of both the government and "all parties concerned to work towards a lasting peace." The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) shared remarks last weekend by PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan from his prison just outside of ?stanbul, in which he called for a disarmament conference.