A US Foreign Ministry delegation including Barbara Leaf, United States Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, visited Erbil on Wednesday and met with the Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.

According to a statement on the Kurdistan Regional Government’s official website, “both parties agreed on the necessity of implementing the oil agreement between the Kurdistan Region and the Federal Government and resuming the region’s oil exports.”

The US Assistant Secretary reiterated that bilateral relations between the Kurdistan Region and her country “remain strong and expansive.”

The meeting was also attended by the US Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski and the US Consul General to the Kurdistan Region Ervin Hicks.

The United States Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs stated on Twitter that the two sides “discussed how cooperation within the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, with Baghdad, and with the United States will deliver greater security and stability.”

Discussions also focused on “the importance of holding parliamentary elections in Kurdistan at the scheduled time this year,” and the Kurdistan Region's Prime Minister emphasised the KRG’s readiness to take all the necessary steps in this regard, the statement said.

The meeting included discussions on reformation within the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs and normalisation of the situation in Shingal through implementation of the Shingal Agreement.