ERBIL — The Kurdistan Region seeks peaceful relations with all its neighbors and the wider region, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani stated during an interview with Al-Jazeera on Tuesday.

The Kurdish leader noted that the Kurdistan Region wants a normal relationship with neighboring Iran, pointing out its long border strip as well as common security economic interests, hoping that these relations will be strengthened and improved on the basis of mutual respect and non-interference in their affairs.

Regarding the relationship with Baghdad, the prime minister said that it improved after the Federal Budget Law was passed, stressing that the Kurdistan Region is waiting for the federal government to fulfill its obligations towards the region.

Concerning the issue of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its decades-long armed conflict with the Turkish army, Barzani said that the confrontation between the two sides is a Turkish problem and not an Iraqi one, indicating that this problem was exported to the Kurdistan Region at a time when the region was busy fighting the Islamic State (IS).

He further explained that the PKK expanded its war to the region and seized many territories, as a result of which hundreds of villages have been vacated.

Regarding the relationship with Turkey, PM Barzani explained that the Kurdistan Region maintains a good relationship with Turkey; he stressed that most of the Kurds do not belong to the Kurdistan Workers Party, and that Turkey does not have problems with the majority of the Kurds, noting that what the autonomous region wants is to strengthen its commercial and economic relations with the neighboring country.

Moreover, Barzani argued that the Islamic State still poses a serious threat in most parts of Iraq, especially in the territories disputed between Erbil and Baghdad, reminding that the Kurdistan Region has multiple times called for cooperation between the Peshmerga and Iraqi forces in those areas where a security vacuum has created the environment for IS survival.

He also added that the US-led Coalition forces are still needed in Iraq as long as the Islamic State continues to target the security forces and civilians in the country through its sleeper cells.

BasNews