MESOP NEWS : McGURK ENGAGES PUK VIA KAK KOSRET & US FRIEND BARHAM SALIH

US Envoy Encourages PUK in Unity – McGurk met with top PUK officials while in Sulaymaniyah

  Basnews English – 04/12/2016 – SULAYMANIYAH — US special presidential envoy to the global coalition battling Islamic State (IS), Brett McGurk, has met with officials from Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), seemingly to encourage them in unity among the party’s conflicting factions.

“A united PUK is critical for a stronger Kurdistan Region and destroyed Daesh,” McGurk posted on his official twitter account after meeting with Deputy PUK Secretary General, Kosrat Rasoul, and Pavel Talabani, a military official and son of the secretary general.

PUK’s secretary-general deputies, Kosrat Rasoul and Barham Salih, backed by a number of leading figures of the party, announced the establishment of a ‘Decision-making Body’ on September 1st. They called the approach an attempt to prevent a group within PUK who “monopolized the authority and use the party’s financial sources for personal interests.”

The announcement further deepened the disputes between them and the PUK influential faction led by Hero Ibrahim, a politburo member and spouse of the party’s secretary general. McGurk previously met with Second Deputy of PUK Secretary General, Barham Salih, who posted on his personal twitter account, “Important progress in war on Daesh. Need for genuine Iraq reconciliation, regional cooperation.” Yesterday at his arrival, the US official was received by Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani, to discuss the latest developments in the Mosul operation as well as the military coordinations between Erbil Washington and Baghdad. “Excellent meeting with close friend President Barzani. Honored to receive memento from Peshmerga liberation of Christian areas near Mosul,” McGurk twitted after being honored by Barzani. www.mesop.de